;-NRLF 


B    3    273    El? 


LIBRARY 

Jt&SITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


/ 


REV.    ALEXANDER     BETTIS 


BRIEF       SKETCH 

OF  THE 

LIFE      AND      LABORS 

OF 

REV.   ALEXANDER   BETTIS 

Also  an  Account  of  the  Founding 
and  Development  of 

THE    BETTIS    ACADEMY 


BY 


ALFRED    W.    NICHOLSON 


Trenton,  S.  C. 

Published  by  the  Author 

1913 


LIBRARY 

.UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


COPYRIGHTED      IN      TS13 
»Y      ALFRED      W        NICHOU6ON. 


PREFACE. 

All  circumstances  considered,  the  Negro 
race  has  made,  and  through  its  leaders  is  now 
making,  history  most  creditably.  A  defect, 
from  which  the  race  suffers  much,  arises  out  of 
the  fact  that  so  little  effort  has  been  made  to 
record  and  preserve  the  creditable  history 
which  the  race  has  already  made.  These 
things  ought  not  so  to  be.  For  the  day  will 
come  when  the  future  historian,  observing  our 
advancement,  will  desire  to  know  the  sources, 
the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  causes,  that 
have  combined  to  determine  the  trend  of  our 
civilization,  and  have  conspired  to  develop  and 
bring  to  pass  the  flattering  attainments  which 
are  yet  to  be  racially  ours.  And  when  that 
time  comes  —  and  come  it  will  —  the  ante 
bellum  Negro  of  force  and  character  will 
then  receive  a  consideration  much  greater  than 
is  now  considered  is  due  him.  When  this  type 
of  Negro  shall  more  nearly  come  into  his  own, 
nowhere  in  this  Southland  will  a  character  be 
found  more  worthy  and  deserving  of  consid 
eration  than  the  man  who  is  the  subject  of  this 
sketch. 

As  truly  as  God  called  Moses  to  lead  the 
3 


children  of  Israel  at  that  most  critical  period 
of  their  history — as  truly  as  Paul  was  divinely 
chosen  to  stand  on  Mar's  Hill  and  confound, 
by  unanswerable  ar/guments,  the  skepticism 
and  atheism  of  that  day,  so  truly  have  events 
shown  that  our  subject  was  guided  by  a  High 
er  Power  in  his  leadership  among  the  negroes 
of  Edgefleld  and  Aiken  counties,  South  Caro 
lina.  Upon  what  other  hypothesis  can  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  work  he  accom 
plished  be  explained? 

Himself  denied  the  advantages  of  educa 
tion,  why  should  he,  in  the  face  of  strenuous 
opposition,  have  so  labored  for  educational 
advantages  among  his  people,  that  a  Christian 
institution  of  learning  came  into  existence, 
and  yet  exists,  to  lift  up  a  standard  of  religious 
excellence  and  civic  righteousness?  Denied 
the  training  by  which  logicians  are  trained, 
how  else  can  we  explain  how  he  became 
possessed  of  such  persuasive  arguments,  that 
thousands  of  people  abandoned  their  ways  of 
sin,  and  became  active,  sacrificing  workers  in 
the  effort  to  have  others  know  Him  whom  to 
know  is  life  eternal?  With  no  insight  into 
human  nature,  and  no  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  cause  and  effect  greater  than  that  which 

4 


slavery  taught,  how  and  by  what  means  did 
he  become  such  a  sane  and  safe  leader  and  ad 
viser  of  his  people,  contributing  so  largely  to 
the  amelioration  of  race  friction,  and  the  es 
tablishing  of  peace  and  harmony,  at  a  time 
when  race  prejudice  gave  promise  of  doing  its 
worst  ? 

To  answer  these  questions  no  effort  is  here 
and  now  made.  Our  aim  will  be  rather  to 
show  how  great  a  debt  of  gratitude,  both  the 
white  and  colored  people  owe  this  most  unique 
character,  and  how  they  can  best  liquidate  that 
debt  by  helping  to  foster  the  Bettis  Academy, 
which  is  so  pregnant  with  opportunities  of 
furthering  the  same  altruistic  lines,  the  work 
for  the  uplift  and  betterment  of  all  the  people 
which  was  so  well  begun  by  Mr.  Bettis. 

For  that  purpose  and  to  that  end  this  brief 
sketch  of  the  life  and  career  of  the  Rev.  Alexan 
der  Bettis,  and  an  account  of  the  founding  and 
development  of  Bettis  Academy  is  here  given. 

A.  W.  Nicholson. 


REV.  ALEXANDER  BETTIS. 

In  ante  bellum  flays,  during  slavery,  there 
lived  not  far  from  Trenton,  in  Edgefield  coun 
ty,  South  Carolina,  an  aristocratic,  cultured 
and  very  wealthy  family  of  white  people  whose 
name  was  Bettis.  They  owned  a  negro  man 
of  unadulterated  African  extraction,  who  by 
permission  of  his  owners,  became  the  father 
of  a  child  by  a  negro  woman  who  belonged  to 
and  lived  on  the  plantation  of  Colonel  John 
Fair.  The  child  was  named  Jack,  and  al 
though  he  was  the  property  of  Col.  Fair,  he 
ultimately  chose  for  his  paternal  inheritance 
the  name  of  Bettis.  During  slavery,  as  well 
as  in  the  after  years  of  freedom,  he  was  known 
as  Jack  Bettis. 

Now  the  Widow  Jones,  whose  plantation 
was  near  Trenton,  had  among  her  negro  slaves 
a  beautiful  mulatto  girl  whose  father  was  not  a 
negro.  The  girl  was 'known  as  Annis  Jones. 
By  the  consent  of  the  owners  concerned,  Annis 
Jones  became  the  wife  of  Jack  Bettis.  Of  this 
union  there  was  born,  August  4,  1836,  a  lit 
tle  negro  boy,  the  frequency  and  volume  of 
whose  lusty  yells  gave  ample  evidence  of  the 

6 


fact  that  he  did  not  then  have,  and  likely 
would  never  have,  the  consumption/  To  this 
their  first  offspring,  the  fond,  admiring  parents 
gave  the  name  Alexander.  And  though  it  was 
the  custom  for  the  negroes  to  have  the  name 
of  their  owner,  and  though  this  diminutive 
Alexander  was  the  property  of  the  Widow 
Jones,  yet  his  indulgent  owner  allowed  him 
to  be  known  as  Alexander  Bettis. 

It  is  worthy  of  record  that  when  the  kind- 
hearted  Widow  Jones  saw,  for  the  first  time, 
her  newly  acquired  property,  the  diminutive 
Alexander,  the  child  gave  abundant  evidence 
of  the  soundness  of  his  lungs  and  thereby 
caused  his  mistress  £  to  remark,  facetiously, 
"He  shall  be  a  Baptist  preacher,  and  shall  lead 
many  negroes  to  serve  the  Lord."  How  pro 
phetic!  Little  did  she  dream  that  the  diminu 
tive  bundle  of  flesh  she  then  tenderly  handled, 
was  destined  in  his  day  and  time  to  be  a  gospel 
power  in  the  land;  a  moral,  religious,  educa 
tional  and  civic  leader  of  his  people;  a  man 
well  meriting,  and  to  whom  would  be  unre 
servedly  given,  the  confidence,  esteem  and 
praise  of  even  the  wealthy,  cultured  white  peo 
ple.  But  that  such  an  unpromising,  though 
desirable,  condition  would  obtain,  the  follow- 

7 


ing  narrative  is  intended  to,  and  will  unques 
tionably  show. 

As  soon  as  he  could  walk  well,  little  Alex, 
would  make  frequent  visits  from  his  mother's 
humble  cabin  to  the  "big  house,"  where  his 
mistress  lived  and,  in  which,  as  a  housegirl  his 
mother  was  regularly  employed. 

It  is  not  out  of  place  to  state  here  and 
now  that  during  the  days  of  slavery  there 
were  an  innumerable  host  of  wealthy,  cul 
tured  white  women  who  gave  their  slaves  a 
love  and  care  that  were  well  nigh  paternal.  To 
this  class  of  humane  women,  the  owner  of 
young  Alex,  belonged,  and  in  the  matter  of 
kindness  to  her  slaves  she  had  few  equals  and 
absolutely  no  superior.  In  fact,  so  marked 
were  the  kindness  and  indulgence  shown  by 
her  to  her  slaves,  they  were  often  referred  to 
as  "the  Widow  Jones'  fr/ee  niggers."  And 
the  whole  truth  will  not  have  been  told  were 
the  fact  not  stated  that  at  no  time  was  her 
authority  ever  questioned,  or  her  commands 
responded  to  with  disobedience  or  even  in 
difference.  And  when  freedom  had  come — 
even  until  the  angels  had  borne  her  spirit  to 
its  eternal,  heavenly  home,  the  relation  of 
Widow  Jones  and  her  former  slaves  remained 

8 


practically  unchanged.  They  remained  the 
loving  dependents,  and  she  the  generous,  in 
dulgent  benefactor. 

It  was  to  the  loving  concern  and  care  of  such 
a  mistress,  rather  than  to  the  teachings  of  his 
mother,  that  the  excellent  training  of  young 
Alexander  was  due.  And  here  is  reason  to  be 
lieve  that  his  aptitude,  his  ready  responsive 
ness  and  his  well  nigh  worshipful  obedience 
increased  and  sustained  his  owner's  interest 
in  him.  For,  it  is  a  fact  that  while  the  lad  had 
early  learned  how  to  teach  a  sleepy-eyed  Geor 
gia  mule  the  geometrical  fact  that  a  straight 
line  is  the  shortest  distance  between  two  given 
points,  and  while  his  manipulation  of  an  ordi 
nary  hoe  was  truly  scientific  yet,  for  the  most 
part,  his  service,  during  his  boyhood  was  ren 
dered  in  and  around  "the  big  house"  in  which 
his  mistress  lived.  And  because  of  certain 
traits  which  the  lad  manifested  his  mistress 
gave  him  the  name  of  "honest  Aleck,"  which 
name  clung  to  him  throughout  his  long  and 
eventful  life. 

Though  it  was,  at  the  time,  against  the  laws 
of  the  State  of  South  Carolina  for  a  slave  to 
be  taught  to  read,  yet  young  Aleck,  while  still 
a  mere  child,  had  actually  learned  to  read  and, 

9  2 


incredible  as  it  may  seem,  it  was  his  kind- 
hearted  mistress  who  taught  him  to  do  so.  Al 
though  the  lad  was  never  able  to  write,  yet  it 
was  the  fact  that  he  was  able  to  read  that  con 
tributed  so  largely  to  his  recognition  as  a  lead 
er  for  and  among  the  people  immediately  after 
Emancipation.  Little  did  that  kind-hearted 
white  woman  have  occasion  to  think  that  the 
training  she  was  giving  her  insignificant  slave 
was  preparing  him  to  be  a  veritable  leader  for 
his  people,  when,  because  the  restraints  of 
slavery  had  been  removed,  leadership  would 
be  sadly  needed  by  them.  Truly 

"God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 
His  wonders  to  perform." 

But  such  was  the  case.  For  by  recognizing 
the  lad's  unusual  abilities,  and  by  allowing  her 
kind  disposition  to  give  expression  to  itself  in 
the  giving  of  special  training  to  him,  she  was 
preparing  thereby  a  mighty  factor  for  the  glory 
of  God  through  the  uplift  and  betterment  of 
the  lowly  negro,  and  she  was  developing,  more 
over,  a  positive  protection  to  her  own  people 
through  the  gratitude  this  trained  negro  ever 
had  for  his  mistress  and,  because  of  her,  all  of 
her  class.  For  when  the  untutored  host  of  ne- 

10 


groes  would  likely  have  confused  the  term  lib 
erty  with  license,  and  been  easily  influenced 
to  believe  that  "might  makes  right,"  it  was  the 
thoughtful  negro  whose  gratitude,  to  former 
master  or  mistress,  caused  him  to  interpose  in 
behalf  of  the  white  people.  And  why,  one 
would  be  tempted  to  ask,  do  not  the  white 
people  of  the  South  today  read  the  negro's 
gratitude  as  expressed  in  his  fidelity  in  the 
hours  of  temptation  during  the  past,  and  make 
sure  of  his  fidelity  in  the  ordeals  that  are  yet 
to  come  by  increasing  the  occasions  for  his 
gratitude  through  and  because  of  justice  and 
increased  kindness  shown  in  the  present?  A 
sane  and  righteous  answer  to  that  question, 
put  into  vigorous  living,  would  settle  for  the 
best  good  and  contentment  of  all  the  white 
people  and  all  the  negroes  each  and  every  ill 
growing  out  of  the  question  of  race.  What 
enabled  Christ  to  say,  "And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me?"  Was  it  not  the 
concern  shown  for  even  his  enemies,  causing 
him  to  pray  for  rather  than  abuse  them?  Any 
way,  the  principle  thus  exhibited  on  the  cross 
and  the  negro's  responsiveness  to  kindness, 
racially  speaking,  combine  to  convince  even  a 
casual  observer  that,  the  Southern  white  peo- 

11 


pie  have  nothing  to  lose  by  materially  con 
cerning  themselves  in  the  negro's  mental, 
moral  and  religious  uplift,  and  general  pros 
perity.  The  life  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
emphatically  teaches  that  fact. 

Augusta,  Ga.,  which  was  about  25  miles 
from  the  plantation  of  Widow  Jones,  was  the 
market  place  for  that  entire  neighborhood.  To 
this,  honest  Aleck  was  often  sent  by  his  owner 
and,  with  her  permission,  by  various  neighbors 
on  errands  both  to  sell  and  to  buy.  On  all 
such  occasions,  in  each  and  every  case,  the 
lad's  judgment  was  considered  proverbial,  his 
honesty  unquestionable.  Finally,  though  a 
slave,  he  was  entrusted  with  a  team,  and  em 
powered  to  go  forth,  get  orders  for  and  deliver 
and  receive  payment  for  the  fine  grade  of  lum 
ber  which  was  the  output  of  the  mammoth 
saw  mill  on  the  plantation  of  his  owner.  These 
trips  often  caused  him  to  go  across  Georgia 
into  more  distant  parts  of  Florida.  His  busi 
ness  sagacity,  at  all  times,  proved  satisfactory 
to  his  owner,  and  she  had,  on  no  occasion, 
any  reason  to  feel  that  she  had  misnamed  him 
when  she  called  him  "Honest  Aleck." 

The  draft  which  the  war  was  making  on  the 
white  men  of  the  South  caused  their  number 

12 


to  be  so  materially  lessened  that  Mrs.  Jones 
found  it  convenient  to  make  "Honest  Aleck" 
practically  manager  of  her  vast  saw  mill  in 
terests,  and  overseer  of  her  various  plantations. 
In  that  capacity  he  served  so  faithfully  and 
well  that  freedom  made  no  change  in  the  ser 
vice  he  was  rendering  his  owner.  In  fact,  he 
continued  so  to  serve  until  that  last,  long 
sleep,  from  which  no  rude  awakening  ever 
comes,  had  claimed  his  mistress  for  its  own. 

Talk  about  home  mission  work.  While  the 
world  has  not  as  yet  awakened  to  the  fact, 
perhaps  it  will  one  day  come  into  a  realization 
that  the  most  stupendous  and  unselfish  mis 
sion  work  of  which  there  is  any  record  was 
that  which  the  white  women  of  the  South — 
women  of  wealth  and  culture — did  in  the  low 
ly  cabins,  to  give  the  untutored,  not  over  re 
ceptive  mind  of  the  humble  slave,  a  working 
knowledge  of  the  true,  yet  invisible  God,  and 
of  His  Christ. 

Among  the  class  of  noble,  heroic  women, 
the  Widow  Jones  occupied  no  insignificant 
place.  And  among  her  slaves,  to  whom  she 
gave  instruction  in  matters  religious,  his  ap 
titude  and  earnestness  having  warranted  it, 
none  received  more  attention  than  did  "Honest 

13 


Aleck."  As  a  result  of  her  earnestness  he,  in 
early  manhood,  came  into  a  realization  of 
sins  pardoned  and  soon  afterwards  was  bap 
tized  into  membership  in  the  aristocratic  First 
Baptist  Church  (white)  of  Edgefield,  C.  H. 

Though  a  slave,  his  regular  and  punctual 
attendance  at  appointed  worship,  his  quiet, 
unobtrusive  attentive  demeanor,  his  general 
integrity  and  reputation  for  truthfulness  and 
honesty,  gained  for  him  a  conspicuous  place 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  preponderant  white 
membership,  and  among  the  negroes  generally 
he  was  well  nigh  reverenced.  In  consequence, 
when,  during  the  war,  it  was  deemed  advisable 
to  have  a  negro  exhorter  for  the  slaves,  in  that 
section  in  which  Widow  Jones'  plantation 
was  located,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Luther  Gordon,  pas 
tor  of  the  Baptist  church,  recommended  to  the 
church  that  "Honest  Aleck"  be  set  apart  to 
the  gospel  ministry,  and  licensed  to  preach. 
Without  hesitation  or  quibble  the  recommen 
dation  was  adopted,  and  the  license  unanimous 
ly  granted.  And  he  at  once  began  to  preach. 
Such  were  the  white  people's  confidence  in  his 
honesty  of  purpose,  sincerity,  and  common- 
sense  that  they  encouraged  rather  than  hinder 
ed  their  slaves  to  attend  whenever  and  wher- 

14 


ever  "Honest  Aleck"  would  hold  services. 
Well  worth  recording,  and  wonderful  to  relate, 
it  was  not  an  infrequent  occurrence  for  a  num 
ber  of  the  slave  owners  to  be  found  at  the  ser 
vices  conducted  by  "Honest  Aleck."  And  in 
variably  they  gave  most  respectful  hearing  to 
his  wonderful,  yet  simple,  religious  epigrams, 
so  well  suited  to  the  needs  and  understanding 
of  the  humble  negro  auditor. 

Now  there  is  no  such  thing  as  chance,  ex 
cept  in  novels  and  other  books  which  people 
of  shallow  minds  write  for  people  of  minds 
more  shallow  to  read.  Things  do  not  just 
happen  so.  The  life  of  races  and  the  trend  of 
nations  obviously  teach  that  fact  —  and  the 
further  fact  that,  even  though  slow  and  im 
perceptible  it  may  be,  the  prayer,  "Thy  king 
dom  come,"  is  daily  being  more  nearly  realized 
and  tends  to  give  undoubted  assurance  that 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  God,  and  that  our  Christ 
shall  be  lord  of  lords  and  king  of  kings.  His 
tory  which  concerns  us  witnesseth  as  is  shown 
by  the  following: 

The  white  race,  already  the  dominant  race 
on  earth,  had  occasion  to  desire  surroundings 
more  congenial  for  the  fuller  realization  of  its 

15 


conception  of  liberty.  It  longed  for,  sought 
after  and  both  found  and  peopled  a  new  land 
— the  American  continent.  In  time  the  negro 
came  also,  without  having  his  wishes  consult 
ed  in  the  matter  or  without  requiring  him  to 
pay  the  expense  of  his  transportation.  And 
why  should  it  strain  the  imagination  to  account 
for  this  seeming  contradiction  in  putting  thus 
together  the  admittedly  dominant  and  most 
progressive  race  with  the  most  backward  and 
unprogressive  race  of  all  history.  Subsequent 
events  undeniably  furnish  an  answer: 

The  white  race  needed  the  enlarged  soul  and 
broader  humanitarianism  which  the  fostering 
care  of  ignorant  dependents  would  give.  The 
negro  needed  a  practical,  working  knowledge 
of  God,  the  true,  eternal — a  knowledge  of  the 
English  language,  and  the  information  which 
a  knowledge  of  that  language  would  bring — 
needed  habits  of  industry,  thrift,  economy — a 
knowledge  of  tools,  machinery  and  skill  in  their 
manipulation.  He  needed  these  and  their  al 
lied  benefits.  Whether  we  condemn  or  apolo 
gize  for  American  slavery,  it  confessedly  served 
a  far-reaching  purpose,  and  ultimately  un 
speakable  good — good  to  the  negro  in  that, 
through  the  sufferings,  hardships  and  rigid 

16 


discipline  of  the  system,  he  received  thereby 
far  more  than  he  gave  —  good  to  the  white 
man  in  that  though  he  lost  much  that  was 
,  transient,  he  gained  far  more  that  was  advan 
tageous  and  lasting. 

True,  purely  mercenary  motives  caused  the 
white  man  to  introduce  and  foster  the  iniquit 
ous  system  whose  'termination  found  him 
poorer,  by  far,  than  he  would  have  been  had 
no  such  system  been  introduced.  The  time 
and  the  circumstances  under  which  the  sys 
tem  was  fostered,  and  especially  its  forceful 
and  drastic  termination,  have  all  combined  to 
give  the  American  people  predominance  over 
all  other  nations  in  matters  of  equity,  justice, 
liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  Are  we 
not  far  enough  removed  from  the  days  of 
American  slavery  to  see  that  He  who  makes 
the  wrath  of  men  to  praise  Him  permitted 
the  mercenary  motives  of  the  white  man  to 
introduce  and  foster  the  system  and,  in  con 
sequence,  to  reap,  in  harmony  with  divine  law, 
full  measure  of  what  he  had  sown?  For,  for 
every  dollar  that  was  gained  through  and  by 
means  of  the  negro  as  a  slave,  five  times  as 
much  was  consumed  in  the  expense  and  out 
come  of  the  war.  For  every  drop  of  blood 

17  3 


which  was  drawn  from  the  negro's  back,  un 
mercifully  lacerated  by  the  overseer's  lash,  an 
equal  quantity  or  more  was  given,  because  of 
the  system,  from  the  veins  of  America's  most 
chivalrous.  For  every  heart  ache  caused  by 
separation  of  mother,  father,  child  or  other 
loved  ones  on  account  of  the  auction  block, 
heart  aches  in  increased  numbers  and  quality 
were  experienced  by  the  American  white  peo 
ple,  through  and  because  of  the  separations 
caused  by  the  war. 

When  will  the  negro — when  will  the  white 
man  learn  from  the  facts  of  American  slavery 
the  lessons  which  are  so  applicable  to  our  con 
ditions  of  the  present  day?  When  will  the 
negro  learn  that  ignorance  and  weakness,  as 
well  as  wickedness,  on  his  part  must  be  racially 
atoned  for?  When  will  the  white  man  learn 
that  his  superior  education  and  moral,  religious 
and  civic  ideals  place  upon  him  obligations  of 
sympathy,  patience,  tolerance,  justice  and 
helpfulness  to  and  for  the  less  fortunate 
negro? 

As  a  Christian  nation,  it  should  be  realized 
by  negro  and  white  man  that,  by  failure  to  con 
tribute  the  fulfilment  of  an  obligation,  due  an 
individual,  his  own,  or  the  other  race,  one  may 

18 


delay  though  he  cannot  ultimately  prevent  the 
realization  of  the  prayer,  "Thy  kingdom 
come."  For  to  its  realization,  the  sovereignty 
of  God-,  and  the  deity  of  Christ  are  pledged. 

No  unfounded  optimism  but  some  recent 
facts  strengthen  the  belief  and  fortify  the  as 
surance  that  even  now,  though  slowly  but 
nevertheless  surely  that  prayer,  more  and 
more,  is  being  realized.  Witness: 

Sixty  years  ago,  in  South  Carolina,  in  any 
white  church  of  any  denomination,  men  of 
deep  piety  and  positive  Christian  life  would 
stand  in  the  sacred  rostrum  and  preach  to  men 
and  women  of  culture,  piety  and  moral  ideals, 
that  human  slavery  was  right.  This  view  they 
would  augment  with  the  fact  that  Abraham, 
Job  and  other  Biblical  characters,  whose  lives 
were  approved,  held  slaves.  And  it  was  fur 
ther  argued  that  slavery  was  rampant  when 
Christ  was  on  earth,  that  there  were  often 
slaveholders  among  the  crowds  he  at  times 
addressed,  that  had  the  system  been  in  defiance 
of  divine  law  Christ  would  have  Spoken 
against  it,  a  thing  he  did  not  do.  But  Christ 
had  said,  "Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them."  It  is 
manifestly  true  that  no  one  would  desire  to  be 

19 


held  a  slave.  It  is  therefore  obviously  true 
that  no  one  could  morally  hold  a  slave.  It  was 
this  truth,  in  the  last  analysis,  that  brought 
freedom  about.  But  today  in  any  white  pul 
pit,  anywhere  in  South  Carolina,  any  minister 
who  would  dare  assert  that  human  slavery  is 
right  would  find  himself  repudiated  as  a  minis 
ter  of  the  gospel.  Why?  Because  God's  will 
is  more  nearly  being  done  on  earth. 

Sixty  years  ago  it  was  a  law  in  South  Caro 
lina  that  were  a  negro  to  be  caught  making  ef 
fort  to  learn  to  read,  his  master  was  required  to 
cut  off  both  his  thumbs  so  that  the  given  negro 
would  be  deterred  from  such  immoral  pur 
suits,  and  other  negroes  would  be  duly  warned 
thereby.  Today  the  grandchildren  of  those 
very  lawmakers  are  serving  as  school  com 
missioners  in  all  parts  of  the  State  and  are  issu 
ing  certificates  to  negro  men  and  women  to 
enable  them  to  be  paid  out  of  the  public  treas 
ury  for  teaching  to  read  the  grandchildren  of 
the  ones  whose  fingers  were  cut  off  for  de 
siring  to  learn.  Account  for  the  change! 
Why  Christian  civilization  is  advancing. 
God's  will  is  more  nearly  being  done  on  earth. 
The  truth  is  gradually  dawning  upon  the 
thoughtful  white  people  that  ignorance  is  a 

20 


curse  and  a  hindrance  to  any  community,  be 
the  ignorance  in  black  skin  or  a  white  one. 
An  increasingly  large  number  of  negroes  are 
themselves  convinced,  and  are  daily  convinc 
ing  others,  that  the  salvation  and  hope  of  the 
race  is  to  be  found  in  the  strenuous  upholding 
of  law  and  order  and  in  the  fulfillment  of  all 
the  conditions  of  a  sober,  industrious  law- 
abiding  citizen.  To  the  leaders  of  both  races, 
the  truth  is  becoming  more  nearly  apparent 
that  the  best  good  of  each  is  wrapped  up  in 
the  common  interests  of  both.  An  advanced 
civilization,  progress  and  prosperity  await  the 
grasping  of  this  conception  by  a  larger  number 
of  negroes — by  a  larger  number  of  white 
people. 

Such  conditions  being  necessary  that  results 
so  desirable  may  obtain,  it  is  indeed  wonder 
ful  that  the  subject  of  our  sketch,  with  such 
limited  advantages,  should  have  comprehend 
ed  such  far-reaching  truth  and  have  done  so 
much  towards  impressing  the  conviction  upon 
others,  and  all  at  the  time  in  which  his  work 
for  the  most  part  was  done. 

Freedom  came.  And  with  it  there  was  a 
general  rearrangement  of  things.  But  "Hon 
est  Aleck,"  with  a  rare  loyalty,  remained  on 

21 


the  plantation  of  his  mistress  and  continued  to 
look  after  and  further  her  interests. 

To  the  reader  who  does  not  already  know, 
the  following  explanation  concerning  negro 
religious  worship  will  not  be  without  interest: 

It  is  a  fact,  and  there  seem  to  be  psychologi 
cal  as  well  as  physical  reasons  for  it,  "that 
warm  climates  are  highly  conducive  of  emo 
tionalism.  The  native  African  had  for  countless 
generations  been  resident  in  one  of  the  warm 
est  climates  on  earth.  In  his  native  land  he,  like 
all  tribes,  however  ignorant,  worshipped  a  god," 
but  it  was  a  god  of  his  own  creation,  an  image 
of  wood  or  of  stone.  His  method  of  worship 
was  to  sing,  chant,  dance,  cavort  around  his 
god.  The  African  was  suddenly  seized  and 
brought  to  America,  where,  though  a  slave, 
he  was  taught  by  the  earnest  Christian  white 
women  of  the  South  concerning  the  true,  the 
living  God.  Under  this  helpful  instruction, 
the  slave  changed  the  object  of  his  worship, 
but  not  the  method.  In  consequence  while  he 
was  allowed  to  attend,  and  was  even  en 
couraged  to  become  a  member  of,  the 
church  which  his  owners  attended,  still  his 
religious  nature  was  unsatisfied.  There  was 
not  enough  "spirit"  or  enough  fervor  and  emo- 

22 


tionalism.  He  attended  the  church  of  his  mas 
ter,  but  it  was  the  plantation  prayer  meeting, 
where  he  could  sing  loud  and  shout  much,  that 
gave  him  the  greater  enjoyment. 

So  when  freedom  came,  that  desire  for  emo 
tional  demonstration  in  his  worship  was  yet 
one  of  the  negro's  dominant  characteristics. 
Even  to  this  day  it  exists,  the  graveyard  and 
the  school-room  being  the  only  effective  cure. 
In  consequence,  while  as  a  rule  the  white  peo 
ple  did  not  require  or  even  request  the  negro 
to  sever  his  connection  with  the  white  church, 
yet,  except  in  isolated  cases,  it  was  one  among 
the  first  things  he  chose  to  do. 

Seventeen  negroes  of  the  white  Baptist 
churches  in  the  section  contiguous  to  Ed'ge- 
field,  C.  H.,  procured  their  letters  and  earnest 
ly  requested  "Brer"  Bettis  to  be  their  spiritual 
leader.  In  order  to  do  so,  he  went  before  the 
association  to  which  the  church  of  which  he 
was  a  member  belonged,  and  requested  that 
they  ordain  him  for  the  work  of  the  gospel 
ministry.  They  promptly  refused  to  do  so.  At 
the  next  annual  session  he  made  the  same  re 
quest,  and  in  the  same  like  manner  was  re 
fused,  the  committee  to  whom  the  matter  was 
submitted  reporting:  "The  matter  of  conduct- 

23 


ing  prayer  meetings  may  be  entrusted  to  some 
negroes,  but  we  cannot  afford  to  have  them 
'mommick'  up  the  gospel — a  thing  they  can 
not  help  doing  if  empowered  to  preach."  And 
though  the  committee's  report  was  adopted,  it 
was  not  unanimously  done.  The  preachers 
who  were  of  the  locality  from  which  Bettis 
came,  and  in  which  he  had  lived  and  preach 
ed,  were  very  much  in  favor  of  ordaining  him. 
In  consequence,  after  the  association  had  ad 
journed,  the  Rev.  Josiah  Matthias,  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Murphy,  the  Rev.  John  Mealing  and 
the  Rev.  Joseph  Tolbert,  a  negro  preacher 
of  Augusta,  who  had  but  recently  been  or 
dained  by  the  white  Baptists  of  Georgia,  these 
four  met  at  a  point  ten  miles  west  of  Trenton, 
with  Bettis  and  the  seventeen  negroes  above 
referred  to,  organized  the  Mt.  Canaan  Baptist 
Church.  Then  at  the  request  of  this  newly 
organized  church,  they  proceeded  to  ordain 
Bettis  to  the  gospel  ministry.  A  meeting  out 
under  the  open  heavens,  on  the  very  spot 
where  he  now  lies  buried,  the  ordination  took 
place.  The  Mt.  Canaan  Church  immediately 
chose  for  its  pastor  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis. 
The  Rev.  A.  Bettis  was  the  only  ordained 
negro  Baptist  preacher  at  that  time  in  the 

24 


whole  of  Edgefield,  Saluda,  Greenwood  and 
Aiken  counties.  As  there  was  a  general  dis 
position  among  the  negroes  to  withdraw  from 
the  white  churches  and  worship  God  under 
their  own  vine  and  fig  tree,  the  Rev.  Bettis  was 
kept  exceedingly  busy  organizing  churches 
and  ordaining  men  to  preach  to  the  churches 
so  organized..  Because  of  a  scarcity  of  ordain 
ed  preachers,  he  was  the  pastor  of  as  many  as 
ten  churches  at  one  and  the  same  time,  preach 
ing  at  any  one  of  them  as  often  as  by  his  own 
appointment  he  could  arrange  to  do  so.  In 
all,  Mr.  Bettis  organized  more  than  forty 
churches,  serving  four  of  them  continuously 
from  the  time  of  their  organization  until  his 
death.  These  four  churches  were  Mt.  Canaan, 
Shaw's  Creek,  Jeter  and  Pleasant  Grove  re 
spectively.  A  brief  sketch  of  each  of  these  is 
given  elsewhere.  And  be  it  remembered  that 
while  Mr.  Bettis  narrowed  his  services  officially 
to  the  above  mentioned  four  churches,  yet  by 
common  consent  he  was,  until  his  death,  in 
some  way  related  to  each  church  he  organized. 
The  idea  seemed  to  prevail  throughout  the 
realm  of  churches  that  a  funeral  had  not  been 
properly  preached  nor  a  marriage  ceremony 
properly  performed  unless  it  were  done  by  the 

25  4 


Rev.  A.  Bettis.  So  in  addition  to  his  own  pas 
toral  work,  he  was  kept  going  continually, 
preaching  at  funerals,  performing  marriage 
ceremonies,  assisting  in  revival  meetings,  lec 
turing,  etc.  To  accomplish  his  itinerancy  he 
kept  two  buggies  and  two  excellent  horses  con 
tinuously  busy. 

Although  the  Rev.  Bettis  could  read,  as  has 
been  said,  he  never  learned  to  write.  Still  he 
understood  and  appreciated  the  importance  of 
education,  so  while  giving  much  labor  to  the 
work  of  organizing  churches,  he  organized  an 
educational  union,  the  membership  of  which 
should  be  composed  of  the  pastors  and  repre 
sentatives  of  the  different  Baptist  churches, 
the  purpose  of  which  would  be  to  raise  money 
with  which  to  foster  education  within  the 
bounds  of  the  union.  The  union  was  to  meet 
on  Saturday  before  every  fifth  Sunday  in  the 
year.  It  finally  had  fifteen  ordained  ministers 
among  its  membership  and  $300  in  the  treas 
ury.  Rev.  A.  Bettis  was  moderator;  Rev.  G. 
A.  Morgan,  secretary;  Austin  Jones,  treas 
urer. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  union  at  China  Grove 
the  ministers  strenuously  advocated  the  divi 
sion  of  the  money  on  hand  among  themselves 

26 


for  the  purpose  of  enabling  them  to  go  to 
school.  This  Bettis  as  strenuously  opposed. 
He  held  that  they  should  instead  establish  a 
school  which  the  union  should  maintain  and 
to  which  the  young  people  generally  should 
have  access.  Over  this  difference  confusion 
ensued,  during  which  Mr.  Bettis  yelled  above 
the  dim,  "All  you  who  favor  establishing  a 
school  with  this  money  instead  of  wasting  it 
on  us  preachers  who  are  already  on  the  verge 
of  the  grave,  I  want  you  to  meet  me  tomorrow 
at  the  Pleasant  Grove  Church."  The  secre 
tary  remained  with  the  China  Grove  faction. 
The  moderator  and  treasurer  were  next  day  at 
Pleasant  Grove  Church,  where  the  Mt.  Canaan 
Educational  Union  was  duly  organized.  Ac 
tion  was  then  and  there  taken  by  which  27 
acres  of  land  at  $3.00  per  acre  was  bought  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  and  maintaining 
thereon  an  academy.  The  balance  of  the 
money  on  hand  was  set  aside  for  the  purchase 
of  lumber  for  the  erection  of  necessary  build 
ings. 

At  the  same  time,  seeing  the  need  of  having 
somebody  sufficiently  trained  and  in  sym 
pathy  with  the  work  to  carry  it  on  when  it 
should  have  been  launched,  he  caused  a  num- 

27 


her  of  the  more  promising  young  men  to  be 
chosen,  sent  away  to  and  supported  in  some 
of  the  higher  and  better  schools  then  extant 
for  the  education  of  negroes. 

Prominent  among  these  was  Hampton  Mat 
thias  and  Alfred  W.  Nicholson,  who  were  sent 
to  the  Schofield  School  at  Aiken  and  later  to 
the  Atlanta  University,  at  Atlanta,  Ga. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Bettis  had  been  sued 
by  the  former  Educational  Union.  But  with 
out  employing  or  even  consulting  a  lawyer, 
he  easily  won  the  case,  having  shown  conclu 
sively  that  there  had  been  no  "misappropria 
tion  of  funds,"  as  was  charged. 

On  the  following  Fourth  of  July  (1881), 
according  to  arrangements  previously  made,  a 
vast  crowd  assembled  on  the  academy  ground. 
Trees  were  then  and  there  cut  to  make  a  clear 
ing,  upon  which  site  a  building  was  to  be 
erected;  money  for  the  furtherance  of  the 
project  was  raised  by  voluntary  contributions, 
and  confidence  in  the  undertaking  was  greatly 
revived,  so  much  so  that  in  the  following  six 
months  a  school  building  admirably  suited  to 
its  proposed  needs  had  been  erected,  which 
building  was  dedicated  January  1st,  1882.  On 
that  day  also  the  school  was  formally  opened. 

28 


Ever  since  then,  this  anniversary  and  other 
occasions  bring  large  crowds  to  the  academy, 
but  it  is  understood  and  a  fact  widely  known 
that  the  Fourth  of  July  and  the  first  day  of 
January  are  big  days  at  the  academy.  And  the 
people  do  come!  From  eight  to  ten  thousand 
is  the  usual  attendance,  a  representative 
number  of  the  best  white  people  of  the  sec 
tion  invariably  being  present.  It  is  well  known 
that  profanity,  drunkenness,  or  rowdyism  in 
any  form,  to  any  degree,  would  not  for  a  mo 
ment  be  tolerated.  In  consequence,  there  is 
none. 

On  these  above-mentioned  occasions  able 
speakers,  both  white  and  colored,  are  secured. 
All  these  addresses,  to  which  respectful  atten 
tive  hearing  is  given,  are  delivered  on  sub 
jects  whose  purpose  it  is-  to  be  racially  helpful 
along  the  line  of  thrift,  economy,  appreciation 
of  opportunities,  progress  and  general  uplift. 
On  each  and  on  every  one  of  these  occasions 
a  rally  in  some  manner  is  conducted  for  the 
raising  of  money  with  which  to  carry  on  the 
work  of  Bettis  Academy.  Their  poverty  con 
sidered,  a  predominance  of  a  lack  of  any 
schooling  themselves  taken  to  account,  the 
readiness  with  which  their  meager  contribu- 

29 


tions  are  given,  and  other  considerations,  make 
these  rallies  both  wonderful  and  encouraging. 
For  it  is  of  and  among  these  people  that  the 
support  of  the  school  has  thus  far,  except  in  a 
few  isolated  cases,  been  due.  Small  wonder, 
then,  that  the  institution  in  its  growth  pene 
trates  into  so  many  of  the  vital  needs  of  the 
people  that  the  requirements  for  maintenance 
at  present  are  increasingly  in  excess  of  the 
financial  and  intellectual  ability  of  its  constitu 
ency. 

Right  here  it  might  be  mentioned  how  great 
was  the  foresight  of  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis. 
He  early  organized  a  Board  of  Trustees  and 
chartered  the  school  under  such  conditions  and 
restrictions  that  have  made  impossible,  and 
will  ever  make  impossible,  any  perversion  of 
its  finances  or  of  its  policy.  For  denomina- 
tionalism  the  school  may  cease  to  stand,  but 
for  the  highest  moral  and  Christian  ideals  the 
school  must  ever  strive  and  contend,  or  cease 
to  exist. 

The  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  was,  until  the 
time  of  his  death,  president  of  the  academy, 
and  it  can,  in  all  truth,  be  said  that  he  was  no 
figure  head.  For  though  he  was  pastor  of 
four  churches,  widely  separated,  with  a  mem- 

30 


bership  combined  of  approximately  10,000 
souls,  with  the  attendant  following,  he  allowed 
no  emergency,  no  inclemency  of  weather,  to 
interfere  with  his  being  present  each  and  ev 
ery  Monday  morning  during  the  school  term, 
at  which  time  he  delivered  what  eventually 
became  to  be  known  as  his  Monday  morning 
talks.  Wonderful  to  relate,  the  students 
would,  if  necessary,  make  any  reasonable  sac 
rifice  or  forego  any  ordinary  inducement  for 
pleasure  in  order  to  be  present  at  one  of  these 
"Monday  morning  talks.'7  Men  have 'been 
known  to  stop  their  mules  in  the  field  while 
ploughing,  and  women,  with  the  hoe  or  at  the 
wash  tub,  to  desist  in  order  to  spend  the  hour 
at  the  academy  during  the  delivery  of  the 
"Monday  morning  talks."  They  were  events 
in  the  life  of  the  school. 

Far  from  the  fact  will  the  reader  be  if  he 
allows  himself  to  believe  that  the  Rev.  Alex 
ander  Bettis  was  a  resonant  voiced  orator.  The 
reverse  was  true.  A  stammering,  impediment 
of  speech  was  his.  But  cool,  calm,  epigram 
matic,  profound,  with  obvious  earnestness  and 
undoubted  sincerity,  he  spoke  from  the  depths 
of  his  very  soul  to  the  inmost  soul  of  his  hear 
ers.  That  was  his  style.  The  art  of  pandering 

31 


to  the  whims  or  catering  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
people  was  wholly  foreign  to  his  nature. 
Hypocrisy  in  any  form  was  to  him  most  odi 
ous.  He  deemed  it  was  his  duty — in  which 
duty  he  delighted — to  "lift  up  a  standard  for 
the  people." 

As  in  his  talks,  so  was  the  Rev.  Alexander 
Bettis  as  a  preacher.  He  preached  not  over 
the  heads  of,  but  to,  his  hearers.  He  preached 
not  about  Julius  Caesar,  Socrates,  Napoleon, 
Voltaire,  Herbert  Spencer  or  Shakespeare.  He 
"preached  Christ,  His  death  and  resurrection," 
and  what  these  meant  or  could  mean  to  man, 
the  sinner.  The  known  vices  and  shams  ex 
isting  among  the  people  he  lashed  unmerci 
fully  and  forcefully  offered  the  consideration 
of  the  nobler,  the  better  way.  "Peace  on 
earth  and  goodwill  to  all  men"  found  an  utter 
ance  in  each  and  every  sermon.  Excitement, 
shouting,  hallelujahs,  which  were  then  so  large 
a  part  of  negro  worship — as  even  now  it  is 
unfortunately  too  much  so — were  condemned 
and' discouraged  by  him.  And  unmerciful  was 
he  in  his  scathing  denunciation  of  the  "whang- 
doodle"  preacher  who,  by  the  cadence  of  a 
tuneful  voice,  strove  to  produce  such  demon 
strations. 

32 


REBECCA  HALL,  BETTIS  ACADEMY 
Girls'   Dormitory 


MARTHA  HALL,  BETTIS  ACADEMY 
Boys'   Dormitory 


In  addition  to  his  duties  as  executive  head 
of  the  academy,  he  was  the  disciplinarian  of 
the  institution.  Only  one  punishment  was 
necessary  for  any  teacher  to  inflict.  It  was  to 
inform  the  given  pupil  that  he  or  she  would  be 
reported  to  Mr.  Bettis.  And  it  should  be  stated 
that  for  all  his  work  at  and  in  behalf  of  the 
academy,  he  never  asked  for  and  never  re 
ceived  one  cent  payment. 

The  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  had  a  construc 
tive  mind,  and  as  an  organizer  of  and  among 
the  negro  Baptists  the  record,  even  now,  is 
yet  his  as  the  following  facts  will  show: 

The  Storm  Branch  Association  was  the  first 
negro  Baptist  association  organized  in  South 
Carolina.  Mr.  Bettis  was  largely  instrumental 
in  its  organization  and  was  its  first,  and,  up  to 
the  time  he  withdrew,  its  only  treasurer.  But 
as  the  Storm  Branch  Association  covered  a 
territory  equal  in  area  to  one-third  of  the  State 
of  South  Carolina,  Mr.  Bettis,  for  concentra 
tion  of  effort,  took  the  more  than  forty 
churches  he  had  organized  and  other  churches 
in  Aiken  and  Edgefield  counties,  and  organ 
ized  the  Mt.  Canaan  Baptist  Association,  of 
which  he  was  the  first  and,  until  his  death,  the 
only  moderator.  He  then  officially  severed  his 

33  5 


connection  with  the  Storm  Branch  Association, 
but  not  until  he  had  counted  out  and  turned 
over  the  $360.67  which  as  treasurer  he  had  in 
hand. 

It  was  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis'  belief  that 
church  organizations  of  any  kind  should  be 
far  more  than  mutual  admiration  societies,  or 
occasions  for  a  general  good  time,  the  renew 
ing  of  acquaintances  and  the  pleasant  exchange 
of  Christian  courtesies.  To  him  always  "the 
field  was  ripe  to  harvest."  In  order  to  be  do 
ing  something  in  accordance  with  the  needs  of 
the  people  he  organized  an  Educational  Union 
whose  avowed  purpose  it  was  to  raise  money 
with  which  to  further  the  cause  of  education 
within  the  bounds  of  the  union.  Connected 
with  this  union  there  were  in  all  sixteen  or 
dained  Baptist  preachers.  As  the  other  fifteen 
preachers  differed  with  Mr.  Bettis  on  how  the 
money  which  had  been  raised  should  be  used, 
they  contending  that  it  be  divided  pro  rata 
among  themselves  that  they  might  go  to 
school,  and  he  contending  that  it  should  be 
used  for  the  education  of  those  who  were  com 
ing  on  the  stage  of  life,  and  not  for  those  who 
were  passing  off  of  it,  he  drew  out  and  organ 
ized  the  Mt.  Canaan  Union,  and  later  Mt. 

34 


Canaan  Union  No.  2.  It  is  to  these  two  unions 
that  the  present  efficiency  and  the  mainte 
nance  of  Bettis  Academy  has  for  the  most  part 
been  due. 

It  was  Mr.  Bettis  who,  in  the  council  of 
Baptists,  first  suggested  the  advisability  of  or 
ganizing  a  Baptist  State  Convention.  Among 
the  plans  he  suggested  for  that  purpose  was 
the  wisdom  of  further  dividing  the  Storm 
Branch  Association  into  smaller  bodies,  dele 
gates  from  which  forming  a  nucleus,  the  de 
sired  organization  might  be  affected.  The 
suggestion  materialized  into  realization.  The 
delegates  assembled  at  Aiken,  and  the  con 
vention  was  organized  with  the  Rev.  J.  Watts 
as  president  and  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis 
was  vice  president. 

It  came  to  pass  that  Baptist  leaders  elsewhere 
in  the  State,  borrowing  the  ideas  and  plans  of 
Mr.  Bettis,  influenced  some  who  had  already 
participated  in  the  organization  at  Aiken,  to 
meet  with  them  in  Sumter,  and  there  was  or 
ganized  another  Baptist  State  Convention.  As 
these  last  organizers  hastily  obtained  a  char 
ter  for  their  organization,  it  necessitated  the 
Bettis  crowd  to  give  the  first  convention  a  new 
name.  This  they  did.  They  called  it  the  Bap- 

35 


list  Home  Mission  State  Convention  of  South 
Carolina,  and  under  that  name  it  has  existed 
and  now  exists. 

Two  facts  are  worth  remembering.  They 
are  that  to  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  was  due 
the  organization  of  the  first  Baptist  State  Con 
vention,  and  that  while  he  refused  to  be  its 
first  president,  he  was,  nevertheless,  the  domi 
nating  force  in  it.  Because  he  was  not  in  sym 
pathy  with  the  manner  in  which  the  Sumter 
Convention  was  organized,  and  because  he  al 
ways  considered  that  organization  to  be  too 
prodigal  in  the  use  of  money,  he  would  never 
affiliate  with  it,  although  he  was  the  indirect 
cause  of  its  existence. 

The  power  for  good  Mr.  Bettis  was  as  a  pas 
tor  cannot  easily  be  stated.  A  few  facts  may, 
however,  be  related:  The  purity  of  his  own 
life,  his  honesty,  his  veracity  were  never  ques 
tioned  by  any  who  knew  him.  And  these 
things  he  expected  and  required  in  those  who 
had  membership  in  the  churches  of  which  he 
was  the  pastor.  A  reputation  of  sexual  laxity, 
failure  to  pay  honest  debts,  inveracity,  would 
not  be  tolerated  by  him.  In  fact,  were  it  re 
ported  to  him  that  a  deacon  in  any  of  his 
churches  owed  a  debt,  and  at  the  time  it  was 

36 


due  had  failed  to  pay  it,  that  man  could  no 
longer  be  a  deacon  until  he  either  had  paid  the 
debt  or  put  it  in  shape  that  was  satisfactory 
to  the  person  concerned.  People  learned  to 
know  that  any  lapses  of  conduct  of  one  of 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis'  members  would  be 
made  right  if  they  but  appealed  to  him.  As 
occasion  arose,  he  was  appealed  to  by  white 
people  and  colored  people  alike.  Thus  it  was 
that  many  a  petty  case,  and  even  graver  ones, 
never  reached  the  trial  justices  or  the  courts. 
At  his  usual  services  it  was  no  uncommon 
thing  to  see  two  or  three  thousand  people  as 
sembled,  and  on  special  occasions  at  the  acad 
emy  from  eight  to  twelve  thousand,  and  no  dis 
order  prevailed.  Were  any  ruffian  to  begin 
any  misbehavior,  it  was  at  once  reported  to  Mr. 
Bettis,  and  he  immediately  ordered  some  men 
to  seize  the  embryonic  disturbance  maker,  upon 
whom  with  his  buggy  whip  he  would  then  and 
there  inflict  a  whipping  wholly  commensurate 
with  the  offense.  "Was  he  never  sued,"  you 
may  ask,  "for  thus  taking  the  law  into  his 
own  hands?"  No,  never!  It  was  a  fact,  and 
became  to  be  known  as  a  fact,  there  was  not 
in  Edgefield  or  Aiken  counties  a  magistrate 
who  would  issue  a  warrant  for,  or  a  constable 

37 


who  would  serve  a  warrant  upon,  the  Rev. 
Alexander  Bettis  for  whipping  an  obstreper 
ous  negro.  In  consequence  of  the  above-men 
tioned  facts,  at  all  the  meetings  with  which 
the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  had  to  do,  good  be 
havior  was  assured.  So  firmly  was  that  stand 
ard  set  and  that  idea  fixed  that  even  today  at 
any  church  of  which  he  was  pastor  or  at  any 
gathering  at  the  academy  the  same  rule  of  ex 
cellent  behavior  obtains.  Though  he  be  dead, 
the  standards  of  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  re 
main  the  ideals  of  his  own  and  subsequent 
generations.  Wonderful ! 

In  taking  the  leadership  among  the  untutor 
ed  members  of  his  race,  just  emerged  from 
slavery,  unaccustomed  to  the  unrestraint  of 
freedom,  and  in  setting  before  them  ideals  of 
life  and  action,  upon  which  no  improvement 
even  to  this  day  has  been  found  necessary,  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  how  crude  were  the 
means  at  his  disposal.  What,  for  instance,  was 
a  church — the  place  where  he  must  indoctrin 
ate  these  humble  people  ?  It  was  only  a  large 
brush  harbor,  the  seats  improvised  logs,  the 
pulpit  the  back  of  an  old  chair,  behind  which 
he  stood,  the  hymnbook  and  Bible  of  the 
preacher  being  the  only  ones  present,  the  vast 

38 


majority  of  the  people  having  neither  one  or 
the  other  at  home. 

To  this  strenuous  labor,  amid  these  uninvit 
ing  surroundings,  he  remained  unmoved  and 
immovable,  even  though  the  comparative  ease, 
the  honor  and  emoluments  of  office  could  and 
would  have  been  his  for  the  taking.  For  at 
this  time  he  could  have  had  any  political  office 
within  the  gift  of  Edgefield  or  Aiken  counties. 

As  a  pastor,  he  received  no  salary.  The 
people  saw  his  needs  and  lovingly  provided 
for  them.  Had  his  suit  become  thread  bare? 
Then  somewhere,  in  a  manner  unostentatious, 
a  box  would  be  given  him  and  next  Sunday 
the  pastor  would  be  seen  to  have  on  a  new  suit 
of  clothes.  Had  his  buggy  become  dilapidat 
ed?  Then,  while  he  was  in  church  his  old 
buggy  would  be  stolen  away  and  a  brand  new 
buggy  would  be  in  its  place.  In  this  way  and 
divers  others  the  pastor's  wants  were  supplied. 
But  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  was  not  money 
hungry.  He  was  no  gospel  grafter.  When 
money  was  given  him,  as  it  often  was,  he 
would  get  in  his  buggy  and  go  hunting  the 
sick  and  needy  of  his  flocks  and  administer 
to  their  needs.  Like  his  Master,  "he  went 
about  doing  good." 

39 


In  no  way,  however,  did  the  purity  of  heart, 
honesty  of  purpose,  unselfishness,  common- 
sense,  equipoise  and  other  admirable  qualities 
of  which  any  man  might  well  be  proud  show 
to  better  advantage  than  was  shown  in  his 
own  conduct  and  in  the  teachings  he  gave  his 
people  during  the  trying  days  of  Reconstruc 
tion,  when  the  judgment  of  many  an  eminent 
man  was  weighed  and  found  sadly  wanting. 

In  those  days  some  mistakes  of  far-reaching 
consequences  were  made  by  the  white  people 
— and  many  were  made  by  the  colored  people 
— mistakes  which  even  now  invite  censure, 
merit  sympathy,  and  for  which  circumstances 
considered  in  the  fuller  light  of  Christian  char 
ity  much  can  well  be  forgiven.  Even  more,  ex 
cept  as  a  disagreeable  historical  fact,  entirely 
forgotten.  Both  sides  feeling,  as  perhaps  they 
did,  that  they  were  more  sinned  against  than 
sinning — much  may  now  be  condoned  that 
was  then  loudly  condemned.  Consider  the 
following: 

The  untutored  negro,  having  no  preparation 
for  his  guidance  as  a  free  man  other  than  that 
which  slavery  had  taught  him,  is  suddenly 
given  the  right  to  go  where  and  when  he 
pleases — to  be  his  own  undisputed  boss.  In 

40 


his  untrained  condition,  to  confuse  license  with 
liberty  was  easy.  He  was  but  human.  His 
enormous  and  undreamed  of  privileges  were 
entrancingly  delightful,  thoroughly  intoxicat 
ing.  With  his  inheritance  of  citizenship,  de 
signing  men,  whose  purpose  was  not  to  help 
him,  but  for  their  own  aggrandisement,  to  use 
him,  preyed  upon  his  ignorance,  credulity  and 
fear  and  taught  him  to  believe  that  the  Repub 
lican  party,  because  of  unadulterated  love, 
pure  and  simple,  at  a  great  cost,  secured  his 
emancipation  and,  at  a  still  greater  cost,  exist 
ed  primarily  for  securing  his  continued  free 
dom — that  to  and  for  him  the  party  was  the 
ship — all  else  was  the  sea — that  the  Demo 
cratic  party  had  striven  mightily  against  his 
emancipation,  and  that  its  continued  existence 
was  solely  and  only  for  the  purpose  of  secur 
ing  his  re-enslavement.  For  reasons,  historic 
ally  known,  the  Southern  white  people  were 
then  as  now,  uncompromising  Democrats.  And 
the  resentment  which  the  war  and  the  attend 
ant  outcome  had  developed  in  their  bosom, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  expressed  itself 
in  a  well-defined  antipathy  for  the  negro.  Thus 
the  two  races  between  whom  mutual  love  and 
confidence  had  long  existed,  though  living 

41  6 


among  and  with  each  other  were  veritable 
aliens  in  any  common  purpose  and,  in  not  a 
few  cases,  pronounced  enemies.  And  it  is,  or 
ought  to  be,  a  well  known  fact  that,  in  any 
given  area,  but  little  progress  can  be  realized, 
when  next  door  neighbors  are  at  enmity  against 
each  other.  Such  for  years  was  the  fate  of 
the  South. 

The  negro  in  his  enthusiasm,  occasioned  by 
his  freedom  and  citizenship,  was  far  more  con 
cerned  about  putting  his  man  in  the  Senate 
than  he  was  about  putting  money  of  his  own 
in  the  bank;  the  holding  of  an  office  concerned 
him  more  than  did  the  owning  of  land;  his 
conceptions  magnified  the  privileges  of  citizen 
ship,  while  his  sense  of  its  responsibilities  was 
most  distant.  Political  campaigns  were  con 
ducted,  not  by  arguments  in  regard  to  the  sci 
ence  and  principles  of  government,  but  rather 
by  depicting  the  horrors  of  slavery  and  the 
greater  horrors  that  would  follow  the  defeat 
of  the  "pahtee;"  ignorance  filled  the  offices,  di 
rected  by  mercenary  intelligence;  and  govern 
ment  existed  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  gov 
erned,  but  for  the  filling  of  the  pockets  of  the 
intelligent  mercenaries.  Education,  which 
Northern  benevolence  made  possible  for  the 

42 


negro  was,  for  the  most  part,  looked  upon  by 
him  merely  as  an  open  sesame  to  the  realms  in 
which  the  degrading  necessity  of  manual  labor 
was  unknown  and  unknowable. 

The  Southern  white  man  made  no  effort  to 
appeal  to  the  negro's  remembrance  of  the  mu 
tual  love,  confidence  and  understanding  that 
had  once  existed  between  them,  nor  did  he  at 
tempt  by  any  interest  shown  in  the  negro's 
uplift  and  general  improvement  to  give  prom 
ise  of  a  better  state  of  things.  His  resentment, 
and  the  impassable  line  of  unwarranted  fears 
of  social  equality  made  such  impossible.  For 
lack  of  manifested  interest  in  the  negro  at 
the  psychological  period,  he  allowed  the  negro 
to  believe  him  to  be  an  insidious,  designing 
enemy,  and  then  with  much  pent-up  resent 
ment  blamed  him  for  believing  so. 

Being  impotent  at  the  ballot  box,  and  an  in 
effectual  factor  in  the  government,  the  proud 
spirit  and  intelligence  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
found  a  way,  as  he  considered  it,  for  self-pro 
tection  and  for  the  preservation  of  his  civiliza 
tion.  In  consequence,  the  Ku  Klux  came  into 
existence.  And  in  this  case,  unerring  as  the 
laws  of  cause  and  effect,  confusion  became 
worse  confounded.  The  negro's  fears  were 

43 


enlarged  and  alienation  from  the  white  man 
was  increased.    Wrong  cannot  fight  wrong. 

The  purpose  intended  here  is  not  to  magni 
fy  any  ill  or  condone  any  wrong  that  then 
existed.  If,  however,  the  Blue  and  the  Gray 
can  now  march  side  by  side  in  reunions,  and 
a  Confederate  veteran  can  deliver  an  oration 
at  Gettysburg,  ought  not  the  negro  and  the 
Southern  white  man,  with  calmness  and  with 
out  passion,  look  the  past  in  the  face  and  read 
the  lesson  it  has  for  them  both? 

With  aliens  and  ignorance  in  control  of 
their  government,  it  must  be  admitted  that  in 
spired  by  fears  of  things  actual  and  imaginary 
—prompted  by  motives  of  self-preservation 
and  the  preservation  of  their  civilization,  the 
Southern  white  people  had  powerful  motives 
for  rash  action  in  which  the  end  sought  seem 
ed  to  justify  the  means  employed.  But  was 
there  not  a  better  way? 

Are  not  the  more  thoughtful  negroes  learn 
ing  that  the  race  must  begin  at  the  bottom 
and  not  at  the  top? — that  to  be  identified  with 
and  to  be  a  part  of  the  progress  of  progressive 
America,  they  must,  with  trained  brain  and 
skilled  hands  and  scientific  methods,  be  a  rec 
ognized  and  essential  factor  in  that  progress? 

44 


JETER    CHURCH 

Rev.   Thomas   Key,   Pastor 


I'll 


OFFICIAL  BOARD  OF  JETER  CHURCH 


Are  not  the  more  thoughtful  white  people  be 
ginning  to  understand  that  it  is  to  the  best  in 
terest  of  the  white  man,  as  well  as  to  the  negro, 
that,  under  Christian  influences,  the  negro  be 
Riven  a  helping  hand  in  his  acquirement  of  a 
trained  brain  and  skilled  hands?  Does  not  a 
broad  patriotism — even  civilized  selfishness 
demand  it?  Can  our  Christian  civilization  re 
fuse  less?  Have  not  schools  for  negroes,  like 
the  Bettis  Academy,  justified,  by  results,  their 
maintenance? 

The  sober  common  sense  exhibited  by  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  during  the  days  of  Re 
construction  is  well  shown  by  the  following: 

Regardless  of  what  ills,  abuses  or  wrongs 
were  done  to  him  or  to  any  member  of  his 
race,  he  never  sought  nor  counseled  retalia 
tion.  On  any  and  all  occasions,  he  delighted 
to  teach  that  two  wrongs  could  never  make 
one  right. 

On  one  occasion,  at  one  of  the  churches  of 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  the  Rev.  Thos.  Sease, 
an  old-time  preacher,  preached  a  sermon  from 
the  text  "the  Lord  has  delivered  his  sheep  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  enemy  and  placed  them  in 
the  care  of  Moses."  His  treatment  of  his 
theme  was  such  that  some  white  people  who 

45 


were  present  easily  believed  that  his  references 
were  such  that  they  were  likely  to  stir  up  race 
hostilities.  Anyway,  that  very  night,  at  "the 
hands  of  parties  unknown,"  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Sease  experienced  that  long,  last  sleep  from 
which  no  rude  awakening  ever  comes.  To 
kill  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  it  was  also  plan 
ned,  and  a  crowd,  as  he  afterwards  learned,  lay 
in  wait  for  him  at  a  point  in  the  road  along 
which  he  must  pass.  How  wonderful  are  the 
ways  in  which  Providence  protects  His  own! 
It  chanced — or  was  it  mere  chance? — that  Mr. 
Bettis'  horse  had  become  sick,  and  he  had  bor 
rowed  a  horse,  upon  which  he  rode  unrecog 
nized  past  the  crowd  awaiting  him.  Being 
thus  baffled  it  was  later  agreed  to  go  to  the 
home  of  Bettis,  take  him  out  and  "do  him  up," 
as  they  significantly  termed  it.  They  did  come, 
and  when  they  told  the  humble  preacher  their 
mission,  he  calmly  replied,  "Gentlemen,  I  per 
ceive  that  some  of  you  have  come  quite  a  dis 
tance.  I  know  you  are  tired  and  must  be  hun 
gry;  permit  me  to  have  supper  made  ready  for 
you."  And  calling  his  wife,  Winnie,  he  re 
quested  her  to  prepare  supper  at  once  for  the 
gentlemen.  While  supper  was  being  prepared 
he  turned  to  the  men  who  had  thus  invaded 

46 


his  home  and  said,  "Gentlemen,  you  ought 
never  do  anything  upon  which  you  cannot  ask 
God's  blessing.  And  while  supper  is  being 
prepared,  let  us  all  bow  and  pray  with  me  that 
God  will  bless  whatever  we  may  do  to 
night."  They  bowed.  Bettis  prayed.  Supper 
was  served  and  eaten,  after  which  the  men  de 
parted,  but  not  without  assuring  the  preacher 
that  they  would  never  bother  him  nor  would 
they  knowingly  allow  anybody  else  to  do  so. 
Never  again  did  the  Klu  Klux,  or  white  people, 
in  any  other  way,  meddle  or  interfere  with  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis. 

In  addition  to  his  constant  preaching  of 
"Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men,"  two  inci 
dents  among  many  may  well  be  mentioned: 

When  Rev.  John  Hammonds,  a  negro 
preacher  of  great  influence,  was  getting  up 
emigrants  to  go  to  Arkansas,  he  went  all  over 
the  section  in  which  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis 
was  the  spiritual  leader.  He  so  vividly  depict 
ed  and  magnified  the  wrongs  of  the  colored 
people  that  when  he  put  before  them  Arkan 
sas  as  a  land  of  Utopia,  and  reiterated  the  spe 
cial  inducements  which  the  emigration  agency, 
for  which  he  was  working,  enabled  him  to 
offer,  the  people  became  wild  with  their  dis- 

47 


content  and  a  general  exodus  to  Arkansas  was 
agreed  to.  Had  it  been  carried  out  lack  of 
laborers  would  have  rendered  thousands  of 
acres  of  land  in  Aiken  and  Edgefield  counties 
valueless.  The  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  from 
pulpit  and  from  house  to  house,  proclaimed 
that  "the  negro  need  not  hope  to  succeed  any 
where  this  side  of  heaven  without  work,  and 
that  if  he  will  act  right,  behave  himself  and  be 
honest  and  industrious,  as  he  ought  to  be, 
these  white  people  here  will  prove  to  be  as 
good  as  any  people  anywhere  on  earth."  So 
successfully  did  he  thus-  teach,  that  he  made 
the  general  exodus  a  failure. 

At  another  time  when  the  Rev.  Alexander 
Bettis  showed  his  common  sense  and  good  will 
towards  the  white  people  was  on  the  occasion 
of  the  "Ned  Tennant  Riot."  Briefly  stated 
the  facts  were  these : 

The  military  companies  of  South  Carolina 
were,  during  that  period,  composed  of  colored 
men.  In  Edgefield  county  "Ned  Tennant," 
an  untutored  negro,  was  the  captain  of  a  com 
pany.  Some  white  people  had  done  something 
to  Ned  Tennant,  to  retaliate  for  which  he  had 
the  drum  beat  to  assemble  the  militia.  They 
came,  as  many  as  three  companies  assembled. 

48 


The  rumor  was  somehow  put  in  circulation 
that  promiscuous  and  general  destruction  of 
the  whites  was  talked  and  agreed  on,  that 
many  who  did  not  belong  to  the  militia  were 
rashly  in  sympathy  with  the  extermination  of 
the  whites,  and  were  planning  to  assist  in  the 
effort  proposed  of  doing  so.  It  was  then  that 
the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  appeared  on  the 
scene  as  a  most  potent  factor.  He  made  all  of 
those  who  were  members  of  his  churches  come 
out  of  the  companies.  He  so  rode,  pleaded 
with  and  persuaded  his  own  people  that  white 
and  colored  accepted  his  proposals  for  the  ter 
mination  of  the  riot.  And,  in  consequence, 
without  the  shedding  of  blood,  the  riot  was 
ended. 

As  a  result  of  this  riot,  and  the  fact  that  in 
the  rural  sections  in  these  counties,  the  beating 
of  the  drum  was  the  means  of  assembling  large 
crowds  of  colored  people  together — a  thing 
the  white  people,  not  without  reason,  feared — 
the  law  was  made  among  them  that  among  the 
negroes  there  must  not,  on  any  occasion,  be 
any  drum  beating.  Still  at  all  the  gatherings 
at  the  academy  there  was  beating  of  the  drum. 
No  one  interferred  with  it  there  or  anywhere 

49  7 


else  if  the  one  beating  it  could  prove  that  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  told  him  to  do  so. 

In  the  grave,  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis 
sleeps.  Already  his  body  has  turned  to  dust. 
But  he  has  taught  a  lesson  to  the  colored  peo 
ple  and  a  lesson  to  the  white  people  that  each 
could,  with  profit,  afford  to  learn.  As  to  the 
colored  people:  He  has  taught  them  that  by 
thrift,  economy,  unselfishness  and  education 
they  can  command  and,  ultimately  demand, 
the  respect,  confidence  and  esteem  of  the  white 
people,  and  in  prosperity  live  at  peace  among 
them.  For  training  the  negro  youth  to  a  real 
ization  of  that  fact  the  Bettis  Academy  stands 
and  is  strenuously  laboring.  As  to  the  white 
people:  He  has  shown  that  his  mistress  was, 
in  the  days  of  slavery,  kind  to  him  and  because 
of  her  kindness  gave  him  some  training,  even 
teaching  him  to  read;  that  it  was  this  training 
and  the  ability  to  read  that  caused  him  to  be 
come  a  leader  among  his  people;  that  it  was 
love  for  and  gratitude  to  his  mistress  that  pre 
vented  him  from  growing  sour  or  nursing  any 
resentment  against  the  white  people,  but  rather 
to  seek  for  the  best  interest  of  the  whites,  even 
while  working  for  the  highest  and  most  lasting 
£ood  of  his  own  race.  Since  Bettis  Academy 

50 


was  brought  into  existence  to  teach  the  prin 
ciples  which  the  life  of  Alexander  Bettis  em 
phasized,  since  it  has  been  successfully  teach 
ing  and  will  ever  teach  those  principles,  the 
white  people  can  well  afford  to  levy  tax  upon 
the  gratitude  of  the  negro  of  tomorrow,  even 
as  Mrs.  Jones,  the  mistress  of  Bettis,  was  able 
to  levy  it  for  her  good  and  the  good  of  her  peo 
ple,  from  that  negro  of  yesterday.  Plainly 
speaking,  the  negro  should  take  advantage  of 
the  opportunities  which  Bettis  Academy  gives, 
and  the  white  people  should  generously  aid 
Bettis  Academy  to  -have  such  advantages  to 
give.  Were  these  things  done,  the  Peace  on 
Earth,  Good  Will  to  Men,  which  the  Rev. 
Alexander  Bettis  both  lived  and  preached, 
would,  in  the  largest  measure,  be  realized. 


51 


MR.  BETTIS  AS  A  CHURCH 
ORGANIZER. 

In  all  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  brought  into 
existence  and  organized  more  than  forty  Bap 
tist  churches.  Being  the  first  and  at  that  time 
the  only  negro  Baptist  preacher  in  Edgefield 
and  Aiken  counties,  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  be  the 
pastor  of  each  and  every  church  he  organized, 
until  there  had  come  forward  and  he  had  or 
dained  a  man  whom  he  deemed  worthy  to  as 
sume  and  carry  on  the  pastoral  work.  How 
did  Mr.  Bettis  manage  to  serve  so  many 
churches  at  one  and  the  same  time?  one  may 
ask.  He  went  to  them  when  he  could,  their 
preaching  day  being  whatever  Sunday  he 
might  appoint  at  the  given  church.  Having 
ordained  sufficient  preachers  to  carry  on  the 
work,  he  concentrated  his  energies  upon  the 
pastoral  care  of  four  of  them,  and  of  these  he 
remained  pastor  until  his  death.  Upon  the  four 
he  stamped  his  ideals  of  missionary  and  edu 
cational  efforts.  So  thoroughly  was  this  done, 
and  so  well  did  he  instill  his  ideas  and  stand 
ards  into  his  deacons  that  even  unto  this  day 
these  four  churches,  under  the  leadership  of 

52 


MT.   CANAAN  CHURCH  AND  ITS  OFFICIAL 

BOARD 
Rev.   H,  L.  Ryane,  Pastor 


those  deacons,  make  possible  the  continuance 
of  the  Bettis  Academy.  These  four  churches 
are  Mt.  Canaan,  Shaw's  Creek,  Jeters  and 
Pleasant  Grove. 

THE   MT.   CANAAN  CHURCH. 

On  the  very  day  in  1868  that  the  Rev.  Alex 
ander  Bettis  was  ordained  to  preach,  and  at 
the  very  same  place — his  grave  being  on  the 
very  spot  on  which  he  kneeled  when  being  or 
dained — the  Mt.  Canaan  Church  was  organ 
ized  with  a  membership  of  17  persons.  Being 
the  only  negro  church  for  miles  and  miles 
around,  negroes  generally  withdrew  their 
membership  from  the  white  churches  and 
brought  it  there.  In  three  years'  time  it  had  a 
membership  of  more  than  2,000.  And  not 
withstanding  the  fact  that  1,000  members  were 
withdrawn  at  one  time  to  form  another  church, 
the  membership  at  the  time  the  Rev.  Alexan 
der  Bettis  died  was  2,400.  Today  it  is  reputed 
to  be  more  than  2,700. 

JETER'S  CHURCH. 

In  1870,  ten  miles  southwest  of  Edgefield  C. 
H.,  there  was  a  white  Methodist  church,  in 
which,  due  to  the  small  attendance,  services 

53 


had  ceased  to  be  held.  Seizing  the  opportun 
ity  it  offered,  Mr.  Bettis  purchased  it,  and  or 
ganized  therein  a  Baptist  church.  By  a  series  of 
revival  efforts  he  greatly  added  to  its  mem 
bership;  so  much  that  at  the  time  of  his  death 
it  was,  and  has  since  remained,  one  of  the  larg 
est  churches  in  the  county.  It  has  a  member 
ship  of  1,300  at  present. 

SHAW'S  CREEK  CHURCH. 

In  1871  the  Shaw's  Creek  Church  was  or 
ganized  with  1,000  members.  It  came  about 
this  way:  About  five  miles  from  Trenton,  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  frequently  preached  at 
a  point,  which  they  called  Arbor's  Stand,  to 
the  members  of  Mt.  Canaan  who  lived  in  that 
section,  and  who,  on  account  of  the  great  dis 
tance  to  Canaan,  could  not  regularly  attend  ap 
pointed  worship  there.  Whenever  there  were 
any  converts  at  this  point  they  had  to  come 
to  Canaan  to  be  baptized.  In  consequence, 
wisdom  seemed  to  dictate  the  organization  of 
a  church  at  the  Arbor's  Stand.  With  1,000 
members,  belonging  to  Mt.  Canaan,  it  was 
done.  The  present  membership  is  2,500. 


54 


PLEASENT  GROVE  CHURCH. 

It  was  in  1869  that  the  white  people's  church 
four  miles  north  of  Edgefield,  on  account  of 
the  scarcity  of  the  white  people  —  especially 
white  Baptists,  for  it  was  a  Baptist  church — 
was  sold.  The  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  bought 
it,  and  organized  therein  the  Pleasant  Grove 
Baptist  Church.  This  church  also  grew  rapid 
ly,  and  when  Mr.  Bettis  died,  it  was  in  mem 
bership,  influence  and  financially  one  of  the 
strongest  churches  in  Western  Carolina.  To 
day  it  has  a  membership  of  1,500. 


55 


TESTIMONIALS. 

Estimate  of  the  Character  of  Rev.  Alexander 
Bettis  by  Prominent  Southern  Men. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Rev.  Alex 
ander  Bettis  could  read  somewhat,  but  could 
write  none  at  all,  not  even  his  name,  and  when 
it  is  further  remembered  that  the  major  por 
tion  of  his  life's  work  was  done  at  a  time,  in 
South  Carolina,  when  race  antipathy  was 
greatest;  when  prejudice,  engendered  and  in 
tensified  by  politics,  was  most  unreasoning, 
blind  and  bitter,  the  fact  that  he  so  labored 
and  wrought  among  his  own  ignorant  people 
as  to  turn  their  aims  and  efforts  in  the  right 
direction,  in  which  even  now  they  continue  to 
go  with  accelerated  speed,  stamp  him,  it  must 
be  admitted,  as  an  extraordinary  man.  And 
when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  he  stemmed 
the  tide  of  adverse  sentiment  among  his  own 
people;  defied  the  all-powerful  political  bosses 
of  that  day;  refused  to  allow  his  name  to  be 
even  used  in  connection  with  positions  of 
honor  and  emoluments  most  desirable,  which 
positions  he  could  easily  have  had,  had  he  but 

turned  aside  from    his    labors    as  an  humble 

56 


minister  of  the  gospel,  and  ceased  so  strenu 
ously  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  "peace  on 
earth,  good  will  towards  men"  he  commands, 
though  in  the  grave,  our  admiration  and  won 
der.  That,  for  the  part  he  played,  at  the  time 
he  played  it,  in  the  affairs  of  South  Carolina, 
the  negroes  are  indebted  no  little  cannot  be 
denied.  That  for  his  common  sense,  honesty 
of  purpose,  unselfishness  and  uprightness  of 
heart,  the  Southern  white  people  owe  him 
much,  must  be  admitted.  In  consequence,  fit 
ting  indeed  are  the  appended  testimonials  of 
the  eminent  men  who  turn  aside  to  testify  to 
the  worth  of  an  humble  negro. 

Concerning  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  the 
Hon.  B.  R.  Tillman,  formerly  Governor  of  and 
now  United  States  Senator  from  South  Caro 
lina,  says: 

Washington,  D.  C,  July  10th,  191 3. 
"Prof.  A.  W.  Nicholson, 

"Trenton,  South  Carolina. 
"My  Dear  Sir:  Replying  to  yours  of  July 
8th.  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  who  founded  the 
academy  over  which  you  preside,  was  in  many 
respects  a  remarkable  man.  Born  a  slave, 
without  any  opportunity  to  go  to  school,  he 
educated  himself  sufficiently  to  become  a  lead 
er  among  the  negroes,  who  respected  him  very 
highly  indeed. 

57  8 


"He  wielded  great  influence  over  his  race, 
and  as  far  as  I  ever  knew  that  influence  was  al 
ways  exerted  for  good.  I  have  never  heard  any 
one  speak  ill  of  him  in  my  life,  and  I  believe  his 
life  was  devoted  to  the  work  of  trying  to  ele 
vate  and  humanize  and  civilize  and  educate 
the  negroes.  If  there  were  more  men  like  him 
among  the  negroes  there  would  not  be  so  much 
crime. 

"Very  respectfully, 

"B.  R.  TILLMAN." 


The  Rev.  Richard  Carroll,  who  as  preacher, 
lecturer  and  humanitarian,  is  undoubtedly  the 
most  widely  and  favorably  known  negro  in 
South  Carolina,  says: 

"Serving,  as  I  did,  at  one  time,  in  the  gen 
eral  or  field  work  of  the  colored  Baptist  de 
nomination  in  South  Carolina,  I  frequently 
visited,  as  it  was  my  duty  to  do,  the  associa 
tions  and  other  annual  bodies  which  had  been 
organized  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  and 
over  which,  at  that  time,  he  presided.  As  none 
of  these  bodies  would  consent  to  hear  any  rep 
resentative  of  anything  to  which  he  did  not 
favor  the  giving  of  a  hearing,  and  as  he  had 
had  a  difference  with  the  leaders,  prior  to,  or 
at  the  organization  of,  the  Baptist  State  Con 
vention,  it  chanced  that  of  all  the  general  work 
ers  1  was  the  only  one  to  whom  a  hearing,  in 
that  locality,  was  granted.  The  privilege  of  be 
ing  heard  at  these  annual  gatherings  was  not 
only  mine,  but  I  enjoyed  also  his  urgent  in- 

58 


vitation  to  visit  any  and  all  of  his  churches 
whenever  I  chose  or  my  convenience  would 
allow.  To  take  advantage  of  these  I  was  in 
no  way  slow.  For  the  man  more  than  inter 
ested  me.  In  fact,  the  better  to  study  him,  I 
once  spent  more  than  three  whole  days  in  his 
home,  as  his  guest,  with  no  other  object  in 
view.  So  it  was  in  that  way  I  really  came  to 
know  the  real  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  whose  ac 
quaintance  I  consider  myself  most  fortunate 
to  have  acquired. 

"With  utmost  candor  and  sincerity  most  pro 
found,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  circum 
stances  considered,  his  lack  of  training  and  en 
vironment  taken  into  account,  he  was,  to  my 
mind,  the  most  remarkable  man  I  ever  knew. 
And  regardless  of  those  hindrances,  he  was,  and 
at  any  time,  among  any  race,  would  have  been 
a  most  remarkable  man.  That  he  was  a  verit 
able  leader  among  men  must  be  admitted.  That 
he  was  a  Moses  to  and  for  his  race  cannot  be 
denied.  In  time  of  war,  he  would  have  made 
an  excellent  general;  in  fact,  an  officer  of  any 
kind  in  which  great  talent  for  organizing  and 
marshaling  large  forces  was  required.  He 
was  'a  mighty  man  in  Israel!' 

"Quick,  accurate,  philosophical  in  thought, 
seriously  earnest,  unquestionably  honest,  thor 
oughly  conscientious,  wholly  unselfish,  abso 
lutely  void  of  any  bellicose  spirit,  with  an  un 
conquerable  repugnance,  an  all  consuming 
hatred  to  any  and  all  kinds  of  shams  and  hy 
pocrisy,  he  demanded  and  commanded  the 
respect,  if  not  admiration,  of  all  who  knew 
him. 

"He  had  a  most  wonderful  knowledge  of  hu- 
59 


man  nature.  He  somehow  just  knew  men.  At 
a  glance,  he  would  form  his  opinion  of  a  man, 
which  opinion  he  would,  upon  more  intimate 
acquaintance,  have  no  occasion  either  to  en 
large  or  modify. 

"To  all  institutions  which  did  not  have  for 
their  primal  purpose  the  education  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  the  glory  of  God,  he  was  unalterably 
opposed.  As  he  saw  it,  he  was  the  bitter  foe  of 
any  and  all  secret  societies.  He  claimed,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  people,  whose  doings  were 
right,  had  no  cause  to  make  a  secret  of  them. 
On  the  other,  he  claimed  that  poor  negroes,  to 
whom  school  houses  and  churches  were  such 
an  immediate  and  positive  need,  could  ill  af 
ford  to  be  squandering  money  in  the  building 
of  society  halls  and  in  paying  society  dues. 

"While  there  is  a  psychological  reason  for 
the  fact  that  people  who  themselves  are  unedu 
cated  least  feel  the  need  of  an  education  and 
are  least  concerned  about  advancing  the  cause 
of  education,  he  was  a  notable  exception  to 
the  rule.  With  him  the  education — Christian 
education  —  of  his  people  was  a  consuming 
passion. 

"As  a  preacher  he  had  none  of  the  negro's 
native  oratorical  fervor.  For  the  gospel  moan 
and  negro  'pulpit  whang-doodle5  he  had  pro 
found  contempt,  and  was  most  unscathing  in 
his  denunciation  of  it.  He  believed  in  his  soul 
that  the  Christian  religion  could  and  would 
settle  to  the  best  good  and  contentment  of  all 
concerned  each  and  every  real  or  imaginary 
human  wrong.  For  that  reason  he  continued 
to  be  an  humble  minister  of  the  gospel  among 
his  lowly  people,  even  though  at  one  time  he 

60 


OFFICIAL  BOARD  OF  PLEASANT  GROVE  CHURCH 


could  easily  have  had  any  political  office  with 
in  the  gift  of  either  Edgefield  or  Aiken  county. 

"As  a  preacher,  too,  he  was  simple,  clear, 
concise — epigrammatic,  illustrative  in  style. 
A  child  could  easily  follow  and  appreciate  his 
discourse.  Like  his  Master,  who  when  He 
preached  taught  the  people,  was  Bettis. 

uFor  the  founding  of  the  Bettis  Academy 
and  other  constructive  work  the  negroes  of 
Edgefield  and  Aiken  counties  owe  him  a  debt 
of  everlasting  gratitude.  For  refusing  to  be 
selfish,  for  counselling  peace  and  good  will  to 
and  for  all  men,  when  the  angry  passions  of 
race  hatred  and  political  prejudice  threatened 
South  Carolina  with  consequences  more  dire 
than  were  the  ravages  of  the  Civil  War,  the 
white  people  too  are  none  the  less  indebted  to 
him.  And  since  the  Bettis  Academy  was 
founded  to  carry  out,  and  is  successfully  carry 
ing  out,  the  principles  for  whose  triumph  he 
strove,  in  what  better  way  could  the  colored 
people,  the  white  people,  any  who  glory  in 
civic  righteousness  and  the  furtherance  of  the 
Christian  religion,  make  effort  to  pay  that  debt 
than  by  helping  to  maintain  and  perpetuate 
the  work  of  Bettis  Academy? 

"To  my  mind,  as  truly  as  the  mantle  of  Elijah 
fell  upon  Elisha,  so  to  a  large,  a  very  large  de 
gree,  have  the  high  ideals  and  lofty  concep 
tions  of  Bettis  fallen  to  and  are  now  being 
worked  out  by  A.  W.  Nicholson,  in  his  work  at 
the  Bettis  Academy.  The  Rev.  Alexander  Bet 
tis  believed  in  and  trusted  Nicholson  as  he  be 
lieved  in  and  trusted  no  other  man,  and  well 
he  might  have.  For  Nicholson  is  a  man  of 

61 


spotless  life,  practical,  earnest,  unselfish,  hon 
est — a  man  of  much  wisdom  and  a  great  meas 
ure  of  common  sense.  Like  Bettis,  his  life  is 
given  to  the  effort  to  lift  up  a  standard  for  the 
people. 

"In  conclusion,  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis 
was  a  tower  of  strength,  a  preacher  whose  ser 
mons  for  effectiveness  and  lasting  good  far 
surpassed  the  sermons  of  the  average  negro 
college  graduate  of  today;  he  sought  not  his 
own,  but  the  glory  of  God  through  the  uplift 
and  betterment  of  the  people.  He  was  mighty 
in  word  and  deed. 

"RICHARD  CARROLL." 


"Columbia,  S.  C." 

The  Hon.  John  Gary  Evans,  formerly  Gov 
ernor  of  South  Carolina,  says: 

"Spartanburg,  S.  C,  July  26,  1913. 
"Prof.  A.  W.  Nicholson, 

"Trenton,  S.  C. 

"Dear  Sir:  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter 
asking  me  for  an  expression  of  opinion  as  to 
the  character  of  Alex.  Bettis  and  I  cheerfully 
comply. 

"Alex.  Bettis,  or  Brother  Bettis,  as  he  was 
called  by  the  negroes  and  most  white  people 
who  knew  him,  was  one  of  the  most  remark 
able  negroes  of  his  age.  He  was  one  of  the 
best  negroes  I  ever  knew.  As  a  minister  he 
preached  the  true  gospel  and  principles  of 
Christ  as  he  understood  them.  As  a  man  and 
leader  he  stood  for  all  that  was  best,  and  his  in- 

62 


fluence  was  for  the  betterment  and  general  up 
lifting  of  his  race.  Alex  had  no  education;  he 
could  read  the  Bible  a  little,  and  write  poorly, 
an  ex-slave,  he  seemed  to  realize  that  before  his 
people  could  expect  anything  they  must  gain 
the  confidence  of  the  white  land  owners  among 
whom  they  lived  and  were  dependent.  With 
this  end  in  view,  he  established  on  the  line  of 
Aiken  and  Edgefield  counties,  South  Carolina, 
an  academy  and  gave  it  his  name.  It  was  the 
first  industrial  school  for  negroes  in  the  State, 
and  has  done  great  good  for  the  race. 

"Alex  believed  that  the  best  friend  to  his  race 
was  the  intelligent  Southern  white  man,  and 
he  taught  his  students  to  be  faithful  and  honest 
and  to  live  in  peace  with  their  benefactor,  the 
good  white  man. 

"After  my  admission  to  the  bar  in  Augusta, 
Ga.,  I  returned  to  South  Carolina  and  opened 
an  office  in  Aiken,  S.  C.  Alex,  gettis  was  one 
of  my  first  clients.  He  knew  my  uncle  in  Edge- 
field,  and  came  to  me  to  help  me  along  as  it 
were,  and  I  appreciated  it.  One  of  my  first 
cases  was  the  defense  of  two  Edgefield  negro 
boys  charged  with  murdering  an  old  miser  and 
hermit  named  Bettis.  I  immediately  went  to 
Alex,  and  he  knew  all  parties  well.  He  told 
me  that  the  boys  were  not  guilty,  as  they  were 
members  of  his  church  and  he  would  help  me. 
He  did  so  and  we  proved  a  complete  alibi  by 
reputable  white  men,  and  the  jury  promptly 
returned  a  verdict  of  not  guilty.  The  real  mur 
derer,  a  white  man,  was  never  brought  to  jus 
tice,  although  Alex  furnished  me  with  evidence 
that  I  believed  would  have  convicted  him,  but 
before  we  could  indict  him,  he  fled  the  State. 

63 


This  man  was  the  principal  prosecutor  of  the 
negro  boys. 

"Alex  Bettis  reminded  me  very  much  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  He  reached  his  followers 
and  bound  them  to  him  by  expressions  of  sim 
ple  common  sense  rules  of  conduct.  He  bore 
himself  always  with  great  dignity,  and  had  he 
received  the  education  that  Booker  Washing 
ton  did,  he  would  have  gained  the  title  of  fore 
most  man  of  his  race,  as  he  was  sincere  and 
honest.  The  leaders  of  the  white  men  in  Old 
Edgefield  had  great  respect  for  Alex  during- 
reconstruction  days,  and  whenever  a  conflict 
seemed  imminent  between  the  races,  he  always 
worked  for  peace  and  good  order. 

"Alex  was  brave  and  fearless  and  his  associa 
tion  with  the  good  men  of  old  Edgefield  mould 
ed  his  character  after  theirs.  He  acquired  their 
virtues  and  shunned  their  vices,  becoming  a 
scion  of  a  civilization  that  can  never  be  equall 
ed  and  'tis  pity  'tis  dead. 
"Truly  yours, 

"JOHN  GARY  EVANS." 


Hon.  J.  W.  DeVore,  Judge  of  the  Eleventh 
Circuit,  South  Carolina,  says: 

"Edgefield,  S.  C,  July  9th,  1913. 
"A.  W.  Nicholson,  Esq., 

"Trenton   S.  C. 

"Dear  Sir:  "I  have  yours,  without  date,  in 
regard  to  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis.  In  reply  am 
forced  to  say:  I  do  not  recall  having  seen  Rev. 
Bettis  but  once.  I  never  at  any  time  talked 

64 


HOWLAND    HALL    FOR    GIRLS 

This  hall  is  a  gift  of  Miss  Emily  Rowland,  of  New  York. 
Miss  Rowland  while  in  Aiken  in  1908,  visited  Bettis  Academy 
and  became  interested  in  the  simple  and  economical  way  in 
which  the  school  was  managed.  Since  that  time  she  has  been 
deeply  interested  in  Bettis  Academy.  In  1911,  when  a  building 
for  girls  was  needed,  she  contributed  money  for  this  hall. 


or  conversed  with,  hence  I  know  nothing  of 
him  from  my  own  personal  knowledge. 

"I  do  know,  however,  he  had  the  general 
reputation  among  his  own  (colored)  race  of 
being  a  man  devoted  to  Christianity,  long  ways 
above  the  average,  in  Christian  knowledge, 
among  the  ablest  ministers  of  the  gospel,  of  his 
race,  and  did  all  he  could  for  the  uplift  and  bet 
terment  of  his  race,  in  every  way. 

"He  had  the  general  reputation  among  the 
white  people  of  being  a  man  who  wielded  great 
influence  over  his  race,  and  exerted  himself 
and  his  energy  in  keeping  and  maintaining 
good  and  friendly  feeling  between  the  two 
races,  always  being  opposed  to  and  discourag 
ing  friction  of  every  kind. 

"Based  on  hearsay,  I  regard  Rev.  Alexander 
Bettis,  deceased,  as  having  been  one  of  the 
most  useful  men  of  his  time,  for  the  purposes 
and  along  the  line  suggested  here. 
"Yours  respectfully, 

"J.  W.  DeVORE." 


Mr.  James  L.  Quimby,  president  of  the  Bank 
of  Graniteville,  S.  C,  says: 

"  'A  prophet  is  not  without  honor  save  in  his 
own  country'  could  not  have  been  said  of  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  the  founder  of  Bettis 
Academy  in  South  Carolina,  for  he  was  hon 
ored  and  respected  by  all  well-meaning  people, 
white  or  colored,  who  knew  him;  and  consider 
ing  the  great  opposition  to  negro  schools  by  a 
large  number  of  white  persons  so  soon  after 
the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  he  was  signally 

65  9 


successful  in  his  efforts  to  establish  this  school 
at  that  time. 

"Nothing  but  his  native  ability,  honesty  of 
purpose,  indefatigable  energy  and  the  confi 
dence  of  his  white  friends  could  have  enabled 
him  to  accomplish  what  he  did,  and  leave  be 
hind  him  an  institution  which  is  proving  so 
great  a  blessing  to  his  race. 

"I  knew  him  well  from  about  the  time  he 
began  the  work  of  his  school  until  his  death, 
and  it  was  a  pleasure  to  count  as  my  friend  a 
man  who  seemed  to  me  to  have  been  divinely 
called,  who  heeded  the  call,  and  like  the  Apos 
tle  Paul,  gave  his  life  to  the  work. 

"It  is  exceedingly  fortunate  that  his  mantle 
has  fallen  upon  one  whom  he  had  a  hand  in 
training,  and  who  is  so  well  equipped  for  such 
a  responsible  work. 

"President  A.  W.  Nicholson,  like  his  prede 
cessor,  has  his  heart,  mind  and  energy  in  the 
work,  is  succeeding  and  has  the  confidence  of 
all  who  know  him. 

"JAS.  L.  QUIMBY." 

"Graniteville,  S.  C." 


S.  McG.  Simkins,  Esq.,  the  well-known  at 
torney  of  Edgefleld,  South  Carolina,  thus  ex 
presses  himself  about  Mr.  Bettis: 

"Edgefield,  S.  C,  Aug.  15th,  1913. 
"Prof.  A.  W.  Nicholson, 

"Trenton,  S.  C. 

"Dear  Sir:  You  ask  that  I  give  my  estimate 
of  the  life  and  character  of  the  late  Rev.  Alex- 

66 


ander  Bettis,  which  I  take  pleasure  in  very 
briefly  doing.  I  had  no  personal  acquaintance 
with  him,  and  therefore  what  I  say  is  from  gen 
eral  reputation,  one  of  the  very  best,  if  not  the 
best  way  to  judge  a  man,  such  a  rule  being 
laid  down  by  the  common  law,  which  is  said  to 
be  and  is  the  perfection  of  human  reason. 
From  the  reputation  given  him  by  both  white 
and  black  he  was  a  man  of  the  highest  honor 
and  strict  integrity  and  of  strong  intellectual 
ity,  and  possessed  an  unusual  amount  of  'good 
horse  common  sense/  which  he  used  with 
great  and  telling  effect  in  directing  his  people 
in  the  right  path,  and  trying  to  bring  them  to 
a  realization  of  the  importance  of  living  sober, 
upright  and  industrious  lives,  thereby  gaining 
for  themselves  the  respect  and  confidence  of 
their  fellow  men,  and  advancing  their  material 
condition.  He  was  conspicuous  as  an  organ 
izer,  and  as  far  as  I  know  or  ever  heard  of, 
no  man  ever  approached  him  in  the  influence 
he  exerted  over  his  people,  and  it  was  all  for 
the  good.  He  absolutely  eschewed  politics, 
and  unlike  many  leaders  of  his  race,  never  in 
cited  them  to  take  interest  or  action  along  that 
line.  He  was  not  only  an  organizer,  but  a 
man  of  determined  and  restless  energy,  all  of 
which  is  amply  verified  by  the  work  he  did  for 
his  people  in  a  material  way,  the  Bettis  Acad 
emy,  of  which  he  was  the  founder  and  for 
many  years  the  promoter,  being  a  living  exam 
ple  of  the  fact.  During  the  writing  of  this  I 
have  asked  several  white  citizens  of  Edgefleld 
who  knew  him,  what  manner  of  man  was  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  and  the  reply  in  each 
instance  was  'that  he  was  the  best  and  most 

67 


influential  negro  that  ever  lived  in  Edgefield 
county.' 

"Very  respectfully 

"S.  McG.  SIMKINS." 


IN   MEMORIAM. 

On  his  grave,  at  Mt.  Canaan  Church,  on 
the  very  spot  on  which  he  kneeled  when  the 
holy  hands  of  ordination  were  laid  upon  his 
head,  a  monument,  expressive  of  the  love  and 
gratitude  of  the  people  to  and  for  the  Rev. 
Alexander  Bettis,  stands.  On  its  four  sides  are 
the  following  inscriptions: 

"In  memory  of  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis, 
Born  August  4,  1836,  whose  soul  made  meet 
for  glory  May  13,  1895,  resting  in  the  silent 
grave  at  Mt.  Canaan,  near  Bettis  Academy,  in 
Edgefield  Co.,  S.  C.  There  deposited  in  hope 
of  a  joyful  resurrection  to  eternal  life  and 
glory." 

"Like  his  Master,  was  by  some  disliked; 
Like  Him  by  many  others  loved  and  prized; 
But  theirs  shall  be  the  everlasting  crown, 
Not  whom  the   world   but   Jesus  Christ  will 
own. 

"His  work  is  done; 
His  race  is  run; 
And  he  has  heard 
That  loving  welcome, 

'Servant,  well  done!'  " 

68 


"He  was  a  man  eminent  in  piety;  of  a  hu 
mane,  benevolent  and  charitable  disposition. 
His  zeal  in  the  cause  of  God  was  singular;  his 
labors  indefatigable,  and  his  success,  preach 
ing  the  gospel,  remarkable  and  astonishing." 

"Rev.  Bettis  was  founder  of  Bettis  Academy; 
was  its  president  thirteen  years,  until  he  died; 
was  pastor  of  four  churches,  and  moderator  of 
the  Mt.  Canaan  Association  from  its  organiza 
tion  until  his  death;  moderator  of  Mt.  Canaan 
Union  Meetings,  and  president  of  the  Home 
Mission  Baptist  State  Convention." 


69 


BETTIS  ACADEMY 

About  five  miles  from  Vancluse,  a  village, 
and  three  miles  from  Sunny  Brook,  a  flag 
station,  both  on  the  Southern  Railroad,  be 
tween  Columbia,  S.  C,  and  Augusta,  Ga. — 
out  in  the  open  country,  set  on  high  ground  in 
an  oak  grove  of  surpassing  beauty,  and  sur 
rounded  by  well  cultivated  farms,  owned  and 
controlled  by  negroes,  there  will  be  found  a 
group  of  five  excellent  buildings,  admirably 
suited  to  their  purpose,  and  five  less  preten 
tious  ones,  some,  not  all  of  the  group,  being 
painted.  This  is  Bettis  Academy. 

As  the  school  is  near  the  boundary  line  of 
Aik^n  and  Edgefield  counties,  it  is  about  equi 
distant  from  the  cities  of  Edgefield  and  Aiken. 

With  the  late  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  acting 
as  leader,  the  school  originated  with  the  col 
ored  people  themselves,  and  through  a  more 
or  less  effective  organization  of  the  local  col 
ored  Baptist  churches,  has  been  well  main 
tained  by  them,  with  the  meager  aid  of  the 
public  school  fund,  for  more  than  25  years. 

When  Mr.  Bettis  saw  his  strenuous  advo 
cacy  of  the  establishment  of  a  school  was 
about  to  bear  fruit,  he  wisely  foresaw  this: 

70 


That  to  carry  the  project  to  success,  the  work 
must  be  placed  only  in  the  hands  of  those 
whose  sympathy  and  loyalty  were  assured.  In 
accordance  with  the  principle  that  it  is  wisdom 
to  get  the  cage  for  the  bird  before  you  get 
the  bird,  he  chose  to  prepare  teachers  for  the 
school  before  the  school  was  yet  a  reality.  Ac 
cordingly,  he  influenced  and  prevailed  upon 
some  of  his  stronger  churches  to  select  from 
their  number  some  apt  young  man  or  young 
men  who  should  be  sent  away  to  school,  and 
whose  expenses  should  be  borne  by  the 
given  church  in  which  the  membership  rested. 
Prominent  among  the  young  men  thus  select 
ed  and  chosen  was  Hampton  Matthias  and 
Alfred  W.  Nicholson.  It  was  Mr.  Bettis'  plan 
that  these  two  young  men  should  go  to  school 
until  the  academy  had  started;  then  each 
should  alternate  the  other  as  principal  of  the 
academy  and  in  attendance  at  school,  each 
successive  year. 

Both  Matthias  and  Nicholson  attended  the 
Schofield  School  at  Aiken,  and  later  the  At 
lanta  University,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  where  they 
both  took  high  rank  in  all  that  appertains  to 
school  life. 

January  1st,  1882,  the  first  school  building 
71 


at  Bettis  Academy  was  dedicated  and  the 
school  formally  opened.  According  to  the  ar 
rangements  mentioned  above,  the  first  prin 
cipal  was  Hampton  Matthias,  who  had  im 
proved  his  opportunities  at  Aiken  and  Atlanta 
so  well  as  to  be  admirably  fitted  for  the  posi 
tion.  He  died  very  early,  but  not,  however, 
before  he  had  impressed  his  own  high  charac 
ter  upon  the  school,  and  secured  for  it  the  ex 
cellent  name  that  it  has  ever  borne. 

Matthias,  was  succeeded  by  his  companion 
and  friend,  Alfred  W.  Nicholson,  who  for  more 
than  twenty-eight  years  has  presided  over  and 
directed  the  affairs  of  the  institution,  and  seen 
it  gradually  advance  to  its  present  place  of  in 
fluence  and  usefulness. 

The  school  had  no  sooner  opened  than  it 
was  seen  that  something  must  be  done  to  pro 
vide  a  shelter  for  pupils  coming  from  a  dis 
tance,  who  could  not  go  home  to  get  their 
meals  and  to  spend  their  nights.  So  in  the 
second  year  of  the  school's  existence,  a  large 
hall  was  erected  for  the  use  of  the  girls,  and  be 
fore  the  end  of  another  year  a  two-room  house 
had  been  erected  for  the  boys.  The  girls7  hall, 
which  at  first  was  an  open  one,  remained  with 
out  partitions  until  1905,  when  it  was  taken 

72 


OFFICIAL  BOARD  OF  SHAW'S  CREEK  CHURCH 


down  and  rebuilt,  in  its  present  form,  with 
separate  rooms,  each  to  be  occupied  by  four 
girls. 

It  has  been  the  custom  for  the  boarding 
students  to  bring  with  them  from  their  homes 
what  ever  furniture  they  need,  and  also  the 
unprepared  food  for  their  tables.  And  by  a 
kind  of  spontaneous  co-operation,  the  occu 
pants  of  each  house,  under  competent  super 
vision,  have  carried  on  their  simple  housekeep 
ing,  with  the  result  that  their  expenses  are  far 
less  and  their  knowledge  of  practical,  economi 
cal  housekeeping  proportionately  enlarged.  A 
clear  spring  in  a  valley  near  by  affords  an 
abundant  supply  of  pure  water;  and  there,  un 
der  the  open  sky,  with  kettles  suspended  over 
a  log  fire,  by  means  of  a  pole,  and  with  tubs 
set  on  benches  conveniently  arranged  they 
have,  under  competent  supervision,  their  nat 
ural  laundry. 

The  simple  life  here  lived,  and  by  no  means 
different  from  that  lived  by  the  pupils  at  their 
own  homes,  except  that  at  every  step  they 
have  competent  instructors  to  correct  and  di 
rect,  gives  this  school  a  power  for  good,  not 
easily  estimated,  in  the  production  of  "home- 
makers."  The  neat,  cleanly,  sanitary,  though 

73  10 


humble  homes,  over  which  the  academy  has 
for  miles  around  exerted  an  influence,  bear 
silent  but  indisputable  evidence  of  that  fact. 
It  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that  the 
training  at  Bettis  Academy,  and  the  atmos 
phere  there  are  not  designed  nor  do  they  serve 
to  put  the  pupil  out  of  harmony  with  his  or 
her  home  life,  but  rather  to  increase  apprecia 
tion  for  the  simple  life,  and  to  give  a  vision  of 
usefulness  and  contentment;  with  training  suf 
ficient  and  character  determined  to  make  that 
vision  a  wholesome  realization.  Such  has  Bet 
tis  Academy  been.  And  anyone  who  will 
carefully  read  the  life,  work  and  methods  of 
that  earnest,  practical  man,  Prof.  A.  W.  Nich 
olson,  about  whom  Prof.  John  R.  Wilson  else 
where  in  this  volume  tells,  will  be  convinced, 
that  as  long  as  he  has  the  management  and  di 
rection  of  the  affairs  of  the  institution  in  hand, 
while  accurate  scholarship  will  be  required  and 
rigid  discipline  will  be  enforced,  yet  a  proper 
grasp  of  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  life,  and 
a  thorough  mastery  of  the  art  of  getting  much 
out  of  life  by  putting  much  into  life  will  con 
stitute  the  primary  effort  or  basal  endeavor. 
The  immeasureable  helpfulness  of  the  acad- 

74 


emy  can  somewhat  be  grasped  by  an  apprecia 
tion  of  the  follownng  facts: 

It  is  the  school,  for  the  most  part,  of  the  ne 
groes  generally,  for  a  section  of  county  larger 
than  Rhode  Island.  For  several  miles  imme 
diately  surrounding  the  school  the  land,  except 
in  isolated  cases,  is  owned  by  negroes,  who  by 
strict  adherence  to  progressive  and  scientific 
methods  of  farming,  have  demonstrated  that 
much  land  which  could  easily  have  been  bought 
for  $5  per  acre  twelve  years  ago,  could  not  now 
be  bought  for  $50  per  acre. 

Influenced  by  the  teachings  of  the  institut- 
tion,  there  has  existed  and  now  exists  an  asso 
ciation  whose  endeavor  it  is  to  buy  up  land  in 
large  tracts,  divide  them  into  farms  as  desired, 
and,  for  a  reasonable  amount  to  be  paid  within 
a  reasonable  time,  sell  them  to  people  of  thrift 
and  character  whose  presence  would  be  an  ac 
tual  asset  to  the  community. 

A  feature,  of  no  small  importance,  tending 
to  show  the  intimate  connection  of  the  acad 
emy  with  the  ordinary  life  of  the  people,  is 
the  autumnal  fair  that  is  held  each  November  at 
the  academy,  the  ground  adjacent  being  fenced 
and  provided  with  a  barn  and  stalls,  erected 
especially  for  that  purpose.  In  this  way,  as  in 

75 


other  ways,  the  academy  readily  becomes  a 
veritable  center  for  education  in  farming,  stock 
raising  and  the  various  pursuits  belonging  to 
the  upbuilding  of  the  country  home,  and  in  the 
rural  mode  of  living.  With  not  a  few,  the  ef 
fort  to  exhibit  the  best  breed  of  stock  and  the 
best  yield,  in  quantity  and  quality,  from  a 
given  area  of  land,  has  become  a  wholesome 
passion,  somewhat  contagious,  as  is  evidenced 
by  the  increased  results  each  year.  A  number 
of  farmers,  in  the  immediate  territory  contig- 
ous  to  the  school,  in  their  highly  wrought  zeal 
to  be  abreast  of  the  times  in  best  results  on 
the  farm,  are  carrying  on  experiments  with 
choice  seeds  secured  from  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  and,  under  the  su 
pervision  of  the  principal  of  the  academy,  in 
telligently -follow  instructions  furnished  by  it. 

Industrial  training,  to  a  limited  extent,  is 
given  at  the  academy.  There  are  other  fea 
tures  which  President  Nicholson  is  adding,  and 
will  add  as  he  gets  the  means  with  which  to 
do  so. 

Instruction  of  this  kind  is  of  peculiar  value 
to  the  young  people  for  whom  this  school  sets 
the  pace  for  and  standards  of  life.  Their  eag 
er  desire  to  make  the  most  of  any  or  all  oppor- 

76 


tunities  of  the  kind  makes  it  the  more  to  be 
regretted  that,  for  lack  of  means  with  which 
to  furnish  it,  any  opportunity  should  be  de 
nied  them.  The  place  the  academy  occupies 
in  the  life  of  the  territory  in  which  it  is  situ 
ated  makes  the  following  additional  industrial 
features  well  nigh  imperative:  Cooking,  house 
keeping,  care  of  sick,  prevention  of  disease. 
While  something,  even  now,  is  being  done 
along  these  lines,  yet  the  training  to  be  satis 
factorily  efficient  must  necessarily  be  system 
atic.  To  have  it  so  means  not  as  yet  in  hand 
must  be  had. 

While  the  training  received  at  the  academy 
has  caused  many  hundreds  of  young  wom 
en  to  become  intelligent,  contented  home- 
makers  in  the  rural  homes,  and  while  it  has 
caused  an  equal  number  of  young  men  to  re 
gard  farming  as  a  profession  and  so  to  dignify 
it  as  such  that  they  are  contented  to  make  it 
their  life's  vocation,  it  must  not  be  inferred 
that  the  literary  training  is  a  side  issue.  Such 
is  by  no  means  the  case. 

Evidence  of  the  intellectual,  moral  and  re 
ligious  training  of  the  institution  is  found  in 
the  large  number  of  those  who  have  gone  out 
from  its  influence  and  held,  with  credit  to 

77 


themselves,  and  satisfaction  to  those  concern 
ed,  positions  as  teachers  and  in  other  callings. 
An  utterance  of  Mr.  F.  A.  Peters,  who  for  sev 
eral  years  has  been  employed  by  the  State 
Board  of  Education  to  conduct  summer  nor 
mal  schools  for  the  benefit  of  colored  teachers, 
will  here  bear  repeating.  He  said: 

"At  each  session,  pupils  trained  at  Bettis 
Academy  formed  a  large  percentage  of  the  en 
rollment,  and  at  Edgefield  they  were  about 
two-thirds  of  the  school  of  over  two  hundred. 
All  were  teaching  or  intending  to  teach,  and 
were  studious,  energetic,  earnest/' 

The  following  extract  appearing  in  the  Sun 
light  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Henry  W.  Wilbur, 
of  Philadelphia,  under  the  caption  "A  Word 
From  the  North''  will  also  bear  repeating: 

"The  writer  is  thoroughly  convinced  that 
there  are  few  schools  in  the  South  for  the  edu 
cation  of  the  negro  doing  better  work,  or  more 
deserving  of  assistance  than  Bettis  Academy. 
In  addition  to  the  service  it  performs  in  the 
line  of  education  which  can  be  imparted  in  the 
school  room,  this  institution,  with  the  con 
structive  labor  of  Principal  Nicholson  and  his 
assistants,  is  the  centre  of  a  general  impulse 
and  uplift  in  the  community.  The  problem 
of  economic  success  for  the  negro  on  land  has 
the  strongest  possible  support  from  Mr.  Nich 
olson.  With  the  negro  a  successful  farmer, 

78 


and  owner  of  his  farm  in  fee  simple,  the  re 
spect  which  is  instinctively  felt  towards  men 
who  make  good  is  bound  to  go  out  to  the  col 
ored  man  of  this  type. 

"Bettis  is  unique  in  more  ways  than  one. 
For  the  larger  part  of  the  institution's  life  this 
school  has  been  supported  by  the  colored  peo 
ple  of  the  vicinity.  In  fact  the  aggregate  help 
from  the  outside  has  been  relatively  small. 
Having  been  in  existence  for  nearly  a  genera 
tion,  Bettis  long  ago  passed  its  experimental 
point.  It  has  been  a  fine  sample  of  applied 
self-help  in  the  negro's  struggle  upward.  For 
this  reason  it  deserves  much  more  help  and 
sympathy  from  the  outside  than  it  has  ever 
received.  No  mistake  can  possibly  be  made 
in  helping  Bettis  Academy  with  even  a  lavish 
hand.  The  splendid  economies  here;  the  large 
amount  of  work,  the  self-sacrificing  dimes  and 
quarters  the  colored  people  have  put  into  Bet 
tis  have  done,  makes  the  investment  of 
bunches  of  dollars,  by  those  who  can  afford  it, 
a  sane  and  safe  use  of  money. 

"Under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Nicholson  the 
colored  men  in  the  vicinity  of  Trenton  have 
bought  and  are  paying  for  several  thousand 
acres  of  land,  and  are  helping  to  create  more 
mutual  confidence  and  respect  between  the 
races. 

'The  school  farm  is  becoming  more  and 
more  a  sample  of  better  agriculture.  Its  pos 
sibilities  can  be  increased  manv  times  by  intel 
ligent  use  of  high-grade  fertilizer  and  careful 
tillage.  Th£  latter  is  already  there.  The  fer 
tilizer  is  hard  to  get;  and  more  direct  assistance 

79 


in  this  particular  is  important.  The  Pennsyl 
vania  Society  for  Improving  the  Condition  of 
the  African  Race  is  gathering  and  dispensing  a 
fertilizer  fund  for  the  benefit  of  colored  school 
farms,  and  has  helped  Bettis  a  little.  It  hopes 
to  do  more  next  year. 

"We  advise  and  urge  everybody  to  help 
Bettis  Academy. 

"HENRY  W.  WILBUR, 

"140  N.  iSth  Street." 
"Philadelphia,  Pa." 

The  facts  in  regard  to  Bettis  Academy  will 
not  have  been  fully  given  were  a  statement 
of  its  actual  and  pressing  needs  to  be  omitted. 
Briefly  enumerated  they  are: 

$500  with  which  to  paint  the  main  building 
and  teachers'  hall. 

$500  with  which  to  erect  a  sewing  room. 

$500  with  which  to  inaugurate  systematic 
training  in  cooking,  housekeeping,  care  of 
sick,  prevention  of  disease. 

$500  with  which  to  inaugurate  a  depart 
ment — not  of  theology — but  of  Bible  training 
especially  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  negro 
preacher,  whose  preparation  has  been  and  is 
so  out  of  proportion  to  his  responsibilities  and 
opportunities. 

$300  with  which  to  erect  a  kitchen  to  one 
of  the  halls  for  girls. 

80 


Thus  $2,300  will  enable  Bettis  Academy 
fully  to  meet  the  demands  which  the  growth 
of  which  (it  is  the  cause)  now  makes  upon 
the  institution,  and  will  enable  it  to  set  in  mo 
tion  additional  influences  for  good,  the  total 
effect  of  which  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  alone 
can  properly  estimate. 

Will  not  the  reader,  moved  by  a  sense  of 
responsibility  to  Him  whose  stewards  we  are, 
ponder  these  things  and  then  do  something, 
even  though  small,  towards  meeting  these 
needs,  which  will  mean  so  much  to  the  honor 
and  glory  of  our  God  ? 

The  whole  truth  has  not  as  yet  been  told. 
$2,300,  with  what  the  people,  through  their 
unions,  association  and  annual  rally  will  be 
able  to  do  for  themselves,  will  enable  the  school 
to  meet  the  demands  made  upon  it  for  the  next 
school  years,  1913-1914.  But  after  then 
what?  "Aye,  there's  the  rub."  In  this  con 
nection  two  things  are  fundamentally  true : 

It  is  no  compliment  to  the  promise  of  a  ro 
bust  manhood  on  the  part  of  a  boy,  were  that 
boy  to  find  sufficient  and  satisfactory  this 
year  the  clothes  that  were  worn  by  him  the 
year  before.  Similarly,  a  school  such  as  Bet 
tis  Academy,  which,  existing  among  a  grow- 

81  11 


ing  race,  must  stimulate  that  growth  and  In 
tellectually  meet  the  requirements  which  ad 
ditional  attainments  make  necessary.  Again: 
In  the  maintenance  of  an  educational  institu 
tion,  it  requires  on  the  part  of  those  responsible 
for  its  continued  existence,  not  only  the  pos 
session  of  the  money  required,  but  also  more 
than  an  ordinary  amount  of  mental  training. 
It  is  not  the  man  who  most  needs  schooling 
that  sets  the  most  value  upon  a  school  in  the 
community.  These  things  being  unquestion 
ably  true,  to  one  who  will  give  a  moment's 
reflection  to  the  conditions  which  now  obtain 
at  Bettis  Academy,  this  much  must  be  evident: 
That  the  greatest  work  inaugurated  by  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  was  to  lead  an  ignorant 
and  poverty-stricken  people  to  found  an  insti 
tution  of  learning;  while  the  herculean  work 
performed  by  his  successor  consisted  in  so 
stimulating  these  poor  and  ignorant  people 
that  they  have  by  their  combined  small  gifts  . 
not  only  kept  the  school  in  existence,  but  while 
not  adequate  yet  to  an  appreciable  degree 
have  met  the  requirements  of  its  growth. 
Since  the  history  of  all  the  institutions  of  learn 
ing  whose  existence  is  substantial  and  whose 
perpetuation  is  assured  shows  that  such  desired 

82 


culmination  was  secured  not  through  the  sum 
total  of  small  contributions  of  the  many,  but 
rather  by  the  large  contributions  of  the  few, 
it  ought  to  occasion  no  surprise  when  it  is  here 
and  now  stated  that  the  actual  and  crowning- 
need  of  Bettis  Academy  at  present  is  AN  EN 
DOWMENT  FUND,  which,  to  be  adequate, 
should  amount  to  $100,000. 

Since  the  policy  of  Bettis  Academy  has  been 
to  develop  in  the  negro  self-reliance,  thrift, 
economy,  respect  for  and  obedience  to  law; 
to  harmonize  his  life  with  conditions  that  are 
rather  than  to  indulge  in  Utopian  dreams;  to 
recognize  rather  than  contend  against  the  ad 
vantages  of  superior  intellect  and  wealth;  to 
believe  that  the  best  good  of  the  white  people 
in  America,  especially  the  ones  immediately 
around  him,  must  ultimately  be  his  own  best 
good,  to  believe  as  firmly  as  he  does  that  he 
will  and  must  one  day  die,  that  the  Christian 
religion  can  and  will  settle  to  the  best  good 
an^  real  contentment  of  all  concerned  each 
and  every  ill  between  individuals  and  races, 
and  since  that  policy  so  rigidly  adhered  to  has 
proven  and  is  proving  most  satisfactory  in  re 
sults,  the  statement  is  unequivocally  made 
that  the  institution  has  proven  a  blessing  to 

83 


the  negroes,  and,  though  different  in  kind,  no 
less  a  blessing  to  the  white  people  of  South 
Carolina,  especially  those  of  Edgefield  and 
Aiken  counties.  The  statement  is  further 
made,  not  rashly,  but  from  sane  premises 
whose  inevitable  conclusion  cannot  be  avoid 
ed,  that  nowhere  in  America  would  $100,000 
given  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  for  His  glory 
contribute  more  far-reaching  desirable  and  last 
ing  benefits  to  the  white  race  and  to  the  negro. 
This  endowment  fund  must  be  had.  The 
glory  of  God  and  the  best  interest  of  the  two 
races  demand  it.  Northern  white  people, 
Southern  white  people  and  negroes  alike 
should  desire  to  perpetuate  an  institution  of 
this  character.  Who  will  make  the  first  gift — 
a  nucleus  for  the  raising  of  the  desired 
amount? 


84 


ALFRED    W.     NICHOLSON 


SKETCH  OF  PROF.  ALFRED  W.  NICHOL 
SON 

President  of  Bettis  Academy 

Prepared  by  Professor  John  R.  Wilson,  A.  M.,  D.  D., 
formerly  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Education  Board 
of  the  National  Convention  of  Colored  Baptists  of  America, 

When  the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  of  blessed 
memory,  had  decided  with  a  firmness  that  can 
know  no  defeat  to  establish  an  institution  of 
learning,  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
the  negroes  of  Edgefield  and  Aiken  counties 
and  the  contiguous  territory,  he  foresaw  the 
wisdom  of  having  prepared,  when  the  school 
should  have  been  established,  some  teachers  in 
sympathy  with  and  suited  to  the  peculiar  needs 
of  the  school.  In  consequence,  he  successfully 
prevailed  upon  his  churches  to  choose  from 
their  midst  some  young  men  to  be  sent  away 
to  school,  and  whose  expenses  would  be  guar 
anteed  by  the  given  church. 

At  the  Pleasant  Grove  Baptist  Church,  Al 
fred  W.  Nicholson  was  the  lad  chosen.  He 
was  sent  to  the  Schofield  Normal  School  at 
Aiken,  S.  C.  Not  because  he  was  a  member  of 
the  church  or  even,  at  that  time,  a  professed 
Christian,  for  he  was  neither  one.  He  was 

85 


chosen  because  of  his  faithfulness  to  and  apti 
tude  shown  in  the  Sunday  School,  his  quiet 
demeanor,  his  well  known  integrity  and  his 
general  reputation  for  thrift,  honesty  and 
truthfulness. 

At  Aiken,  young  Nicholson  in  no  way  dis 
appointed  those  through  whose  generosity  he 
had  gone  and  was  supported  there.  In  the  al 
lotted  time  he  had  completed  the  prescribed 
course,  graduating  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
benefactors,  to  the  honor  of  the  school  and 
with  credit  to  himself. 

To  Atlanta  University  at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  he 
was  then  sent.  Here  his  energy,  earnestness 
and  studious  habits  attracted  attention  and 
rated  him  among  the  foremost  students  of  the 
institution.  Having  at  this  time  embraced  the 
Christian  religion,  he  became  a  leader  in  all 
the  religious  organizations  of  the  university. 

When  he  had  reached  the  advanced  years  of 
his  college  course  and  was  giving  no  little 
thought  to  such  subjects  as  "After  graduation, 
what?"  he  received  the  information  that  he 
must  come  at  once  and  take  charge  of  the  prin- 
cipalship  of  the  Bettis  Academy.  He  came, 
and  at  once  gave  evidence  of  the  fact  that  the 
occasion  for  the  man  and  the  man  for  the  oc- 

86 


casion  had  met.  Due  to  his  zeal  the  school 
prospered,  and  the  growth,  of  the  institution 
and  the  name  of  Nicholson  came  to  be  and 
were  interchangeable  terms. 

There  were  few  men  who  possessed  the 
ability  to  estimate  properly,  to  the  degree  which 
the  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis  did,  the  real  char 
acter  of  an  individual.  And  yet,  in  all  things, 
he  had  implicit  confidence  in  the  honesty  and 
judgment  of  young  Nicholson.  He  trusted 
him  as  he  did  no  other  man. 

In  consequence,  at  the  death  of  the  Rev. 
Alexander  Bettis,  the  management  of  the 
school  was  given  wholly  into  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Nicholson.  They  trusted  and  have  trusted 
him  even  as  Mr.  Bettis  did.  And  without  fric 
tion,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  trustees  and  the 
people  alike,  he  has  brought  the  school  from 
obscurity  to  a  place  among  the  foremost  of 
negro  schools. 

While  at  Schofield,  Mr.  Nicholson  had  met 
and  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  Miss  Edna 
Cohen,  a  young  woman  whose  excellent  cul 
ture,  inate  refinement  and  rare  beauty  were 
but  in  harmony  with  the  charms  of  her  high 
moral  and  religious  ideals.  About  this  time, 
these  two,  whom  truly  God  had  joined  togeth- 

87 


er,  became  one.  And  it  is  true — a  fact  which 
more  than  pleases  Prof.  Nicholson  to  acknowl 
edge — that  his  remarkable  success  in  connec 
tion  with  the  academy  has,  in  no  small  meas 
ure,  been  due  to  the  loving  sympathy,  hearty 
co-operation  and  excellent  judgment  which  his 
wife  has  ever  given  him. 

The  potency  of  the  academy  in  the  uplift 
and  betterment  of  the  people  has  been  due  to 
the  fact  that  Prof.  Nicholson  has  made  it  more 
than  a  place  where  lessons  from  books  are 
taught  and  recited.  The  school  has  been  made 
to  concern  itself  about  any  and  everything 
which  would  forward  the  improvement  of  the 
people.  It  has  been  made  to  be  a  veritable 
"light  that  is  set  on  a  hill." 

The  wisdom  of  owning  land,  methods  of 
procedure  by  means  of  which  the  ownership 
of  land  could  be  had,  methods  by  which  two 
stalks  of  corn  would  be  made  to  grow  where 
previously  only  one  or  perhaps  none  had 
grown,  the  profitable  raising  of  stock,  the  mor 
al  and  religious  betterment  of  the  whole  people 
as  well  as  the  students— about  these  and  re 
lated  subjects  the  work  of  the  academy  has 
been  concerned.  And  the  wheel  within  a 

88 


wheel,  so  to  speak,  has  been  and  is  Prof.  A. 
W.  Nicholson. 

Under  his  leadership,  more  negroes,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  academy,  own  their  own 
farms  than  is  true  of  any  other  given  area  in 
all  South  Carolina.  And  his  great  power  for 
good  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  the  increas 
ing  years  but  increase  the  confidence  of  the 
people,  white  and  colored  alike,  in  his  moral 
purity,  Christian  zeal,  integrity,  honesty,  un 
selfishness  and  soundness  of  judgment. 

To  meet  some  pressing  needs  of  the  institu 
tion  which  its  growth  makes  imperative  right 
now,  and  for  which  $5,000  would  be  adequate, 
Prof.  Nicholson  is  strenuously  laboring.  And 
yet  he  has  a  greater  effort  before  him,  the  mag 
nitude  of  which  would  stagger  him  were  not 
his  faith  in  God,  his  confidence  in  the  exist 
ence  of  practical  Christianity  and  his  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  far-reaching  importance  of 
the  matter  to  furnish  him  the  determination 
to  accomplish  it.  It  is  this:  He  has  launched 
an  effort  to  make  it  assured  that  the  institu 
tion  will  be  perpetuated,  and  will  continue  to 
teach  and  practice  the  principles  and  policies 
which  now  make  it  a  safe  and  most  helpful 

89 


and  far-reaching  seat  of  learning.    To  do  this 
an  endowment  of  $100,000  must  be  raised. 

Since  it  is  well-known  that  among  those 
who  are  blessed  with  this  world's  goods  there 
has  ever  been  and  may  yet  be  found  those  who 
are  willing  and  desirous  to  honor  the  Lord 
with  their  substance.  To  all  such  who  are 
willing  to  spend  and  be  spent  to  help  bring  the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  Bettis  Academy 
and  its  work  affords  an  open  avenue  for  giv 
ing.  In  this  way  they  may  honor  God,  by  as 
sisting  in  the  uplift  and  betterment  of  a  sub 
merged  race,  whose  ignorance  must  ever  be  a 
hindrance  to  good  government  and  social  or 
der.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  Prof.  Nichol 
son  will  ultimately  succeed  in  his  undertak 
ing.  To  all  disposed  to  assist  it  may  be  stated 
as  a  striking  fact  that  nowhere  else  in  Amer 
ica  does  a  dollar  "given  in  His  name,"  carry 
with  it  assurance  of  better  return  in  far-reach 
ing  results  than  a  dollar  spent  for  the  glory  of 
God,  through  the  uplift  and  betterment  of  the 
negroes  in  this  section  of  South  Carolina. 

JOHN  R.  WILSON. 
Columbia,  S.  C. 


90 


INDEX. 

Bettis  Academy,  land  for  bought,  27;  first  building  dedi 
cated,  28;  chapter  about,  70  to  84;  pictures  of  build 
ings  facing,  17  and  33;  home  life  at,  73,  74;  results 
of  training  in,  76,  77;  statement  of  financial  needs, 
80  to  84. 

Bettis,  Rev.  Alexander,  portrait  of,  frontispiece;  his  birth, 
6;  has  charge  of  owner's  lumber  business,  12;  licensed 
to  preach,  14;  becomes  leader  of  new  church,  23; 
ordained  as  minister,  24;  pastor  ten  churches,  25; 
organized  educational  union,  26;  accused  and  acquit 
ted  of  misappropriation  of  funds,  28 ;  his  Monday 
morning  talks,  3i;  vice  president  Baptist  State  Con 
vention,  35;  his  moral  standards,  36,  37;  suppresses 
disorder,  37;  preached  without  salary,  39;  prays  with 
would-be  assassins,  46,  47;  stops  a  negro  exodus,  48; 
breaks  the  Tennant  riot,  48,  49;  as  church  organizer, 
52  to  55;  testimonials  to  his  character,  56  to  67;  in 
memoriam,  68,  69. 

Carroll,  Rev.  Richard,  testimonial  by,  58  to  60. 
Cohen,  Edna,  meets  A.  W.  Nicholson  at  Schofield  Institute, 
87;  marriage,  88. 

De  Vore,  Hon.  J.  W..  testimonial  by,  64,  65. 

Gary,  Ex-Gov.  John  Evans,  testimonial  by,  62  to  64. 
Gordon,  Dr.  Luther,  recommends  Alexander  Bettis  for  the 
ministry,  14. 

Hammond,  Rev.  John,  plans  negro  exodus,  47. 

Illustrations,  Rev.  Alexander  Bettis,  frontispiece;  main 
building,  Bettis  Academy,  facing,  17;  Rebecca  Hall 
and  Martha  Hall,  Bettis  Academy,  facing,  33;  Jetter 
Church  and  official  board,  facing  45;  Mt.  Canaan 
Church  and  official  board,  facing,  53;  Pleasant  Grove 
Church  and  official  board,  facing,  61;  Shaw's  Church 
and  official  board,  facing,  73;  Alfred  W.  Nicholson, 
facing,  85. 

Jetter  Church,  reference  to,  25;  organization  of,  53,  54; 
picture  of  church  and  official  board,  facing,  45. 

Jonee,  Austin,  treasurer  educational  union,  26. 

Jones,  the  widow,  owner  of  Alexander  Bettis,  6;  refer 
ences  to,  7,  8,  13,  14,  51. 

Matthias,  Hampton,  selected  by  Alexander  Bettis  for  prin 
cipal  of  Bettis  Academy,  28 ;  at  Schofield  Institute  and 
Atlanta  University,  28  and  71;  reference  to  death,  72. 

91 


Matthias,  Rev.  Josiah,  helps  organize  Mt.  Canaan  Church, 

24. 

Mealing,  Rev.  John,  one  of  Mt.  Canaan's  organizers,  24. 
Morgan,  Rev.  G.  A.,  secretary  educational  union,  26. 
Mt.  Canaan  Church,  account  of  organization,  53;  pictures 

of  church  and  official  board,  facing,  53. 

Nicholson,  A.  W.,  portrait  of,  facing,  85;  selected  by  Mr. 
Bettis  as  principal  of  Bettis  Academy,  28;  at  Scho- 
field  Institute  and  Atlanta  University,  28 ;  at  Atlanta, 
86;  marriage,  88;  becomes  professed  Christian,  86; 
becomes  principal  of  Bettis  Academy,  72;  his  effective 
ness  as  teacher  and  leader,  88;  sketch  of,  85  to  92. 

Nicholson,  Mrs.  A.  W.,  valuable  assistant  to  her  husband, 
88. 

Peters,  F.  A.,  commends  Bettis  Academy,  78. 
Pleasant  Grove  Church,  organization  of,  54;  pictures  of 
church  and  official  board,  facing,  61. 

Quimby,  James  L.,  testimonial  by,  65,  66. 

Sease,  Rev.  Thomas,  alarms  white  people,  46. 

Shaw's   Creek   Church,  organized,   54;   picture  of  church 

and  official  board,  facing,  73. 
Simkins,  S.   McG.,  testimonial  by,  66  to  68. 

Tillman,   Senator  B.  R.,  testimonial  by,  57,  58. 

Tolbert.  Rev.  Joseph,  helps  organize  Mt.  Canaan  Church, 
24. 

Wilbur,  Henry  W.,  article  by,  78  to  80. 
Wilson,  Prof.  John  R.,  chapter  by,  85  to  90. 


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Nicholson,   A.W. 

Brief  sketch  of 
the  life  and  labors 
of  Rev.  Alexander 
Bettis. 


E185.97 
N62 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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